Qass 
Book 



THE 

KIMPATRICK MEMORIAL; 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF FATHER AND SON, 



AND A SELECTION FROM 



SERMONS 



REV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, JR., 



THE SKETCHES BY THE 

Key. GEORGE HALE, D.D. 



EDITED BY THE 

Key. wm. m. BLACKBURN. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
WESTCOTT & THOMSON. 
1867. 

felt •> 4 M * 



v K(s>X> Co 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

ELI A S COOK, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania. 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers, Philada. 



THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



The present memorial volume is not the result of a 
sudden thought. It has a history. Declining health in- 
duced the Kev. Jacob Kirkpatrick, Jr., to resign, in 
1857, the pastoral charge of the Third Presbyterian 
Church, Trenton, N. J. Both pastor and people saw no 
hope of his recovery. Many of his friends, sorrowing 
that they should hear his voice no more in the pulpit, 
felt that it would be a consolation, if he might still preach 
to them through the press. They requested the privi- 
lege of publishing a small volume of his sermons. He 
modestly declined, shrinking, as he had ever done, from 
publicity. 

In now publishing a few of his sermons, no violence is 
done to his last wishes. It is true, that while lingering 
at his father's house, waiting for the Heavenly call, he 
requested that his manuscripts might be burned. But 
his father interposed. At length he consented, saying, 
in effect, to Br. Kirkpatrick, ' ' You can do with them as 



4 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



you think best. Let them be used in any way, in which 
they may do good. ' ' 

Soon after his decease the Rev. Dr. Kirkpatrick sent 
the manuscripts to a friend to be at his disposal. This 
the father would never have done, had not the fullest 
consent been given by his son, whom he so ardently 
loved, and whose dying wishes were regarded with pro- 
found sacredness. Various events providentially delayed 
the publication of the intended volume. The idea was 
quite abandoned until, in May, 1866, Dr. Kirkpatrick 
was called to his rest. It was then thought that a memo- 
rial should be published, of these two beloved ministers, 
whose loss was widely felt in the Presbyterian Church. 
After due consultation it was resolved to publish a me- 
morial on the present plan. 

The editor was requested to supervise the work, and 
the Rev. G-eorge Hale, D. D. , of Pennington, N. J. , to 
prepare the biographical sketches, to which he appropri- 
ately gives his own preface. To the many friends who 
have aided him the editor offers his thanks. 

In the editor's hands were placed more than two hun- 
dred manuscripts of sermons and lectures ; some of them 
mere outlines, some half written, with wide blanks to be 
filled up at a future day, and others quite complete. 
Very few of them present a fully written peroration. In 



THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 5 



making his appeals, Mr. Kirkpatrick was usually guided 
by a few catch-words, or phrases, many of which do not 
now reveal what was in his mind. 

This imperfection in the manuscript may indicate the 
perfection of his study and his preaching. His power of 
extemporaneous address was remarkable. He did not 
sacrifice it in the pulpit. How many of his most elo- 
quent utterances are lost, except as their effect remains 
upon the memories and the souls of his hearers ! Many 
persons will not find, in this collection, the sermons they 
expected, for they were never written beyond the mere 
first draft. Such were the discourses on ' ' The Wonder- 
ful, the Counsellor," "The Lamb of God," "The Cruci- 
fied Saviour. ' ' The fact that his sermons upon the Di- 
vinity, the life, the sufferings, and the atonement of 
Christ, were delivered from a brief outline, may be taken 
as a proof of his familiarity with the great themes of 
gospel theology. On no other subjects did he appear so 
free in the resistless march of his thoughts. 

His sermons were largely of an awakening character, 
rather than consolatory. He earnestly sought the con- 
version of sinners, the reclaiming of the fallen, the 
arousing of the Church, and the reviving of the spiritual 
life in the hearts of Grod's people. The published speci- 
mens are to be read as the sermons of a young pastor, in 
1 * 



6 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



the regular course of his preaching. They were not pre- 
pared for special occasions. They have been selected 
from the mass, on the plan of furnishing the best speci- 
mens of different years, the most practical, and the most 
varied in their style and thought. 

None of the sermons bore a title. The editor has 
endeavored to supply this want. He has been scrupu- 
lously careful to maintain the integrity of what was 
written. The portraits have been engraved by an emi- 
nent artist from photographs, representing the deceased 
as they appeared in their more vigorous days. 

The largest credit, for the successful publication of the 
work, is due" to Elias Cook, Esq. , of Trenton, N. J. , the 
guardian of the only and orphan child of the Rev. Jacob 
Kirkpatrick, Jr. He assumed the entire pecuniary re- 
sponsibility, sparing no pains to make it a fitting memo- 
rial of the departed; one of whom was to him as a 
paternal counsellor, and the other a beloved pastor. 

If the reading of these biographical sketches shall lead 
any to embalm the names of the commemorated dead, 
by imitating their Christian example, and if the medita- 
tion of these sermons shall be blessed of Grod to any, who 
mourned when the voice of the preacher was silenced by 
death, happy will be the reward of those to whom its 
preparation has been a labor of love. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



PREFACE BY THE EDITOR 3 

PREFACE BY THE BIOGRAPHER 11 

THE KIRKPATRICK MEMORIAL. 

I. THE KIRKPATRICK FAMILY. 13 

II. THE REV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, D. D S3 

in. THE REV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, Je „ 78 

SERMONS. 

I. GOD'S GLORY IN REDEMPTION. 123 

n. MOTIVES TO EFFORT.- 141 

HI. OPPORTUNITIES LOST .... 160 

IT. THE HUMAN LEVEL 177 

V. THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW 195 

VI. DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 214 



7 



8 CONTENTS. 

PASS 

VII. THE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF 234 

VIII. LESSONS FROM THE MANNA „ 251 

IX. THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER - ....... 270 

X. THE FUTURE SATISFACTION 288 



THE KIRKPATRICK MEMORIAL. 



PREFACE. 



The necessity for the early appearance of this volume 
denies to the writer of these sketches the power to follow 
the advice which the poet Horace gives to the author of 
a book — "Prematur nonum in annum." With an abler 
hand and a longer time to collect and verify facts, this 
part of the volume would have been more nearly com- 
plete and therefore more satisfactory ; but it is sent forth 
as it is, in the hope that some things stated may prove 
gratifying to the numerous friends of this excellent 
father and his most worthy son. 

The compiler takes this method of expressing his 
grateful acknowledgments to the Hon. Andrew B. Cobb, 
of Parsippany, William Annin, Esq. , of Liberty Corner, 
the Hon. H. N. Congar, Secretary of State for New 
Jersey, and other friends, too numerous to be named 
here, for the facilities they have afforded him, and the 
information they have imparted. 

Pennington, Nov. 14, 1866. Q. H. 



THE KIRKPATRICK MEMORIAL. 



I. 

THE KIRK PA THICK FAMILY. 

niHE Pilgrim Fathers of the May Flower, who 
landed at Plymouth in 1620, with those who 
shortly afterwards fled to New England from the 
persecutions of the Old World, laid the founda- 
tions of this great nation. Their work, by the 
blessing of God, will abide; and the record of 
what they have done must make up an essential 
part of our national history, not soon to be blotted 
out. But there were others, holding the same 
Calvinistic creed, inspired with the same Christian 
heroism, and animated with an equally ardent 
love for civil and religious liberty, like the Pro- 
testant emigrants from Holland and the Huguenot 
refugees from France, who have rendered material 

2 13 



14 



KIRKPATRICK MEMORIAL. 



aid in moulding our free institutions. Perhaps 
sufficient credit has not yet been given to the 
Presbyterian emigrants from Scotland and the 
north of Ireland, known as the Scotch and Scotch- 
Irish, for the powerful influence for good which 
they have exerted. Well-trained in the School 
and Kirk of their native home, familiar from 
childhood with the Bible and the Catechisms of 
the Westminster Assembly, and disciplined by 
fierce persecution for their loyalty to the crown 
and covenant of King Jesus, they have not only 
contributed much towards giving character and 
stability to the Presbyterian Church, but they 
have ever been found among the firmest and most 
intelligent supporters of evangelical religion, 
popular education and good government. To 
mention no others, how familiar among us have 
become such names as Tennent, Witherspoon, 
Doak, Msbet, Alexander, Mason, Wilson, Brown 
and McDowell. 

Of this class of our citizens were many of the 
families who, in the early part of the eighteenth 



THE KIRKPA TRICK FAMILY. 



15 



century settled near Baskingridge, Somerset 
county, New Jersey, one of which was 

TIIE K I RK I* A IR I V,K FAMILY. 

The Hon. Walter Kirkpatrick, a cousin of the 
late Dr. Jacob Kirkpatrick, at his decease, left in 
his own hand this statement, to wit: 

"The Kirkpatrick family possessed estates in 
Nithsdale, [Scotland] in the ninth century. The 
first on record is Ivone. Kirkpatrick in the time 
of David I. He was a witness to a Charter of 
Robert Bruce. He had a grandson Ivone and 
from him descended a long line of Lords of Close- 
burn. Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, Gentleman of 
the Privy Chamber of James VI., obtained a 
patent of Freedom of the whole kingdom. He 
died in 1628, and was succeeded by his son 
Thomas, whose grandson Thomas was created 
Baronet of Nova Scotia. [This order was founded 
by James I. in 1611, and is given by patent], 
March 26, 1686. He married Isabella, daughter 
of *Lord Torpischen ; afterwards he married Sarah, 



16 



KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



daughter of Robert Furguson, Esq., of Craigda- 
rock, by whom he had a son Rodger ; and thirdly, 
he married Grizzel, daughter of Gain Hamilton, 
Esq., of Raplock. He was succeeded by 

" II. Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, who married 
Isabel, daughter of Sir William Lockhart, of Car- 
stairs, and was succeeded by 

" III. Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, who married 
Susannah Grierson, of Capuncet, August 29, 
1748. Fire consumed his mansion, family papers, 
and everything except the tower. He died 
October, 1771, and was succeeded by 

"IV. Sir James Kirkpatrick, who married 
Miss Jaudine, and died June 7, 1804, and was 
succeeded by 

" Y. Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, the present Ba- 
ronet. 

TJTTJ 1U TtlLrA Tll JCK A.H318. 

ar. a Sattier and chief as. 

the last charger with 3 cusJiions or. 

Crest, a hand holding a dagger 

in pale— distilling drops of blood. 
Motto, ' I make sure. 9 
Seat, Closebum's Dumfries." 



THE KIRKPA TRICK FAMILY. 17 



The name of the immediate ancestor of that 
branch of the family of which this volume is a 
memorial was Alexander. He was born in 
Watties JSTeach, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. He 
removed with his family to Belfast, Ireland, after 
the birth of his son David, in the latter part of 
the reign of George I. probably about the year 
1725, that he might enjoy greater liberty of con- 
science and additional religious advantages. In 
the spring of 1736 he embarked at Belfast for 
America, and after a stormy passage of thirteen 
weeks landed at New Castle, Delaware. The 
passengers and crew were almost starved owing 
to the unexpected length of the passage. David, 
who was then twelve years old, speaking of this 
to a grandson in after years said : " The first 
thing I got to eat after we got on shore was corn, 
in the state which we call roasting ears, and with- 
out roasting or boiling I ate it till the milk of the 
corn ran down both sides of my mouth, and I 
have never eaten anything since that tasted 
sweeter." The narrative by the grandson adds : 

2 * 



18 



KIRKPATEIGK MEMORIAL. 



" They crossed the Delaware at Philadelphia, and 
wandered up through the State of New Jersey 
(which was partially settled) till they reached 
Boundbrook, and from that they went over the 
mountain. This incident he (the grandfather) 
used to tell me, and smile at — they were all on 
foot — there was no road other than the Indian 
path. In the path before them they saw a land- 
tortoise, speckled, sticking up his head ; and as 
they had heard of rattlesnakes, they thought that 
monster must be one ; so they turned out in the 
woods and went away round leaving his ' torkle- 
ship' in full possession of the path. When they 
came to a spring of water at the side of what has 
since been called c Mine Brook/ there they set- 
tled down, built a log house and went to work." 

The spot was well chosen, about two miles west 
from the present site of Baskingridge in Somerset 
County, New Jersey. It embraced the southern 
slope of Round Mountain in a well- timbered 
region, with unfailing springs of pure water, the 
rich meadow-land through which Mine Brook 



THE KIRKPATRICK FAMILY. 13 



runs with a sufficient fall of water for a mill-seat, 
and with these material advantages, a charming 
picturesque view of the adjacent region. The 
spring of water is still there, marking the site of 
the original log-house, and until within a few 
years could be seen the remains of the apple-trees 
planted by Alexander Kirkpatrick and his sons. 
This improvement many of the early proprietary 
leases required. In a lease of one hundred and 
thirty-seven acres, (which it may be remarked 
was a minor portion of what the family eventu- 
ally obtained by title in fee simple) granted 
November 23, 1747, to Alexander Kirkpatrick, 
he agrees " to plant an orchard of at least one 
apple-tree for every three acres, and in case this 
lease shall continue beyond three years, then (to) 
plant one apple-tree for every six acres, all 
regular in one orchard, and to keep up the num- 
ber planted, and to keep the orchard in good 
fence/' 

Alexander Kirkpatrick died at Mine Brook, 
June 3, 1758, mentioning in his will, which was 



m KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



executed " in articulo mortis/' his wife Elizabeth, 
his sons Andrew, David, and Alexander, his son- 
in-law Duncan McEowen, his youngest daughter 
Mary, and his grandson Alexander. 

It is worthy of notice that when he came to 
America with his family he was accompanied by 
his brother Andrew. This brother Andrew had 
two sons, John and David, and two daughters, 
Martha, wife of Joseph Linn, and Elizabeth, wife 
of Stephen Roy, all of whom removed to Sussex 
County, and there remained. 

The children of Alexander and Elizabeth 
Kirkpatrick were, 

1. Andrew, who married Margaret, daughter 
of Joseph Gaston, and had one son, Alexander, 
and seven daughters, viz : Jennet, wife of Abner 
Johnson; Elizabeth, wife of Hugh Bartley; 
Margaret, wife of Joseph McMartin; Mary, 
Sarah, Anne, and Hannah. This Andrew in-^ 
herited the homestead, but not long after the 
death of his father sold it to his brother David, 
and removed to what was then called " the Red- 



THE KIRKPA TRICK FAMILY. 21 



stone Country/ 7 or in other words to Western 
Pennsylvania. 

2. David, who married Mary McEowen, sister 
of Duncan, Daniel, and Alexander McEowen, of 
whom more in the sequel. 

3. Alexander, who married Margaret Ander- 
son, of Boundbrook, who went to New York and 
married there, and one daugnter, Martha, wife of 
John Stevenson, then of Morristown, afterwards 
of New York. Alexander, the father, was a sur- 
veyor, subsequently a merchant, and kept a store 
at Peapack. 

4. Jennet, wife of Duncan McEowen, who with 
their family removed to Maryland. 

5. Mary, wife of John Bigger, had two sons, 
John and David, and four daughters, Elizabeth, 
Anne, Euth and Mary. They removed to War- 
wick, [Orange county, ~N. Y., or Cecil county, 
Md]. 

David, the son of Alexander and Elizabeth 
Kirkpatrick, was born at Watties Neach, Dum- 
fries Shire, Scotland, February 17, 1724, and 



22 



KlRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



died at Mine Brook, March 19, 1814. His wife, 
Mary MeEoiven, was born in Argyle Shire, Scot- 
land, August 1, 1728, and died at Mine Brook, 
November 2, 1795. 

David Kirkpatrick, Esqr., and Mary 
McEowen were married March 31, 1748. They 
had four sons and four daughters. 

1. Elizabeth, born* September 27, 1749, the 

wife of Sloan, mother of the Rev. William 

B. Sloan, for several years pastor of the Presby- 
terian Church of Greenwich^ Warren county, and 
grandmother of the late William H. Sloan, Esq., 
of Flemington. She, after the death of Mr. 
Sloan, married General William Maxwell, and 
died in 1829. 

2. Alexander, born September 3, 1751, died 
September 24, 1827. He was the father of the 
Rev. Jacob Kirkpatrick, D.D., of Ringoes. 

3. Hugh, born September 2, 1753, died Janu- 
ary 9, 1782, unmarried. 

4. Andrew, born February 17, 1756, Chief 
Justice of the State of New Jersey. 



THE KIRKPA TRICK FAMILY. 23 
• 

5. David, born November 1, 1758. 

6. Mary, born November 23, 1761, married 
Hugh Gaston, of Peapack, and had one son. 
After Mr. Gaston's death, she married a Todd, 
and died July 1, 1842. 

7. Anne, born March 10, 1764, married Moses 
Esty, of Morristown. 

8. Jennet, born July 9, 1769, married Dicken- 
son Miller, of Somerville, and had six sons. 

Andrew Kirkpatrick, third son of David 
Kirkpatrick, Esq., and Mary McEowen, was 
born at Mine Brook ; he graduated at the College 
of New Jersey, in 1775, while Dr. Witherspoon 
was President; he, shortly after completing his 
legal studies, entered upon the practice of the law 
at New Brunswick, where he married Jane, 
daughter of Colonel John Bayard. Of their 
children — (1) the Hon. Littleton Kirkpatrick, 
attorney-at-law, graduated at the College of New 
Jersey in 1815, was a member of the House of 
Representatives, at Washington, from his native 
state; married, but no children survive him. 



24 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

m 

(2). J ohn Bayard Kirkpatrick, Esq., graduated at 
Queen's (now Rutger's) College in 1815; was for 
some time connected with one of the Departments 
at Washington, and died, leaving two sons and 
two daughters. (3). Mary Ann, wife of the Eev. 
Samuel B. Howe, D.D., for some time pastor of 
the First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, 
New Brunswick. (4). Jane, wife of the Rev. 
Jonathan Cogswell, D.D., formerly Professor of 
Ecclesiastical History in the East Windsor Theo- 
logical Seminary, both now deceased, leaving one 
daughter. 

Andrew, their father, was elected a member of 
the House of Assembly of New Jersey, in 1797, 
and sat with that body during the first session ; 
but on the 17th of January, 1798, he resigned 
his seat, having accepted the office of Chief Jus- 
tice of the state, as successor to the Hon. James 
Kinsey. Chief Justice Kirkpatrick was for 
twenty years a member of the Board of Trustees 
of the College of New Jersey. He was one of 
the original Trustees of Princeton Theological 



THE KIRKPA TRICK FAMILY. 25 



Seminary; is the first person named in the Char- 
ter granted by the Legislature of New Jersey, 
November 15, 1822; and was the first President 
of the Board, holding that office until his death, 
which occurred in 1831. 

Capt. David Kirkpatrick, fourth son of 
David Kirkpatrick, Esq., and Mary McEowen, 
born at Mine Brook, November 1, 1758, resided 
there until his death, December 11, 1828. His 
wife, Mary Farrand, of Troy, Morris County, died 
September 5, 1805, in the thirty-fourth year of 
her age. Their children were — 

1. Walter, born April 12, 1795. He graduated 
at the College of New Jersey in 1813; was a 
member of the Legislative Council of New Jer- 
sey for the term of three years, and was a useful 
citizen, highly esteemed. He married Mary 
Caroline, daughter of Colonel Lemuel Cobb, of 
Parsippany, Morris County, who was born Octo- 
ber 12, 1798, and died October 6, 1826. The 
Latin epitaph on the monument in the grave-yard 
at Parsippany, where her remains and those of a 



26 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



beloved son lie, is a sincere and affecting expres- 
sion of the grief of the surviving husband and 
father. The Hon. Walter Kirkpatrick was a man 
of delicate nervous organization, of highly culti- 
vated taste, a fine classical scholar and an amateur, 
of the Fine Arts. Eepeated domestic bereave- 
ments disappointing his fond expectations, wrought 
powerfully upon his sensitive nature, and he went 
down to his grave, a mourner, December 13, 1841. 
No children survive him. 

2. Hugh) born May 31, 1797, died March 11, 
1860. He never married. He graduated at the 
College of New Jersey, in 1815, and after pur- 
suing the study of Medicine for the prescribed 
time, he engaged in the practice of his profession 
as a physician. He was a great favorite with his 
friends, and familiarly known as "Doctor Hugh." 
As a token of the popular favor he was elected 
Sheriff of Somerset county, and served one term. 
Like his brother Walter he was of an amiable 
disposition, retiring in his habits, and fond of 
literary occupation. 



TEE KIEKPA TRICK FAMILY. 27 

3. Elizabeth Farrand, born November 19, 1799. 
She married the Hon. Andrew B. Cobb, son of 
Colonel Lemuel Cobb, of Parsippany, and died 
December 11, 1857, leaving one daughter Julia, 
now wife of Frederick A. Demott, Esq., of Mor- 
ristown. 

Alexander Kiekpatrick, the eldest son of 
David Kirkpatrick, Esq., and brother of Chief 
Justice Andrew and Captain David, married 
Sarah, daughter of Judge John Carle, of Long 
Hill, Morris County, and brother of the Kev. 
John Carle. She died February 15, 1842, in the 
eighty-second year of her age. 

Thirteen of the children of Alexander Kirk- 
patrick and Sarah Carle reached adult age, to wit, 

1. David, born December 24, 1776, married 
Sarah, daughter of Daniel Cooper, of Long Hill. 

2. Mary, born April 25, 1781, wife of John 
Lafferty Cross, of Baskingridge. 

3. John, born July 24, 1783, married Mary, 
daughter of David Ayers, and sister of Dr. Ayers, 
of Liberty Corner, and died December 11, 1855. 



28 



K1RKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



4. Jacob, born August 8, 1785, died at Bin- 
goes, May 2, 1866. He married Mary Burroughs 
Howell, daughter of John Sutfin, of Freehold, 
Monmouth County, New Jersey. Their children, 
(1) John Sutfin, who died in infancy. (2) Alex- 
ander. (3) David Bishop. (4) Henry Augustus, 
M. D. (5) Calvin. (6) Newton. (7) Lydia 
Baker, wife of Dr. Justus Lessey, of Philadel- 
phia. (8) Sarah, wife of J. Gardiner Bowne, of 
Oakdale. (9) Charles Whitehead. (10) Rev. 
Jacob. (11) Frances J., wife of Edward H. 
Schenck, of Bingoes. (12) Anna F., wife of 
Henry Schenck, of New Brunswick. (13) Eliza- 
beth G., wife of Martin Nevius, of Blawenburg. 
(14) Mary. 

5. Sarah, born September 22, 1787, wife of 
"William Annin, of Liberty Corner. The Bev. 
John A. Annin, pastor of the Presbyterian Church 
Bed Wing, Minnesota, is their son. 

6. Elizabeth, born September 21, 1789, wife of 
Alexander Vail, of Bernard township, Somerset, 
had two daughters. After Mr. VaiPs death, she 



THE KIBKPA TRICK FAMILY. 29 



married William Gaston, of Baskingridge, and 
had several sons. 

7. Lydia, born December 20, 1791, wife of 
Peter Demott, of Bedminster. 

8. Anne, born January 27, 1794, wife of John 
Stelle, of Bernard township. 

9. Rebecca, born June 15, 1796, wife of Squier 
Terrill, of Warren township, Somerset. 

10. Martha, born October 8, 1802, wife of 
Israel Squiers, of Morris County, near Basking- 
ridge. 

11. Jane, born May 20, 1798, wife of John 
Cory, of Morris County, near Baskingridge. 

12. Alexander, born August 10, 1800, married 
a Miss Tingley. 

13. Robert Finley, born July 22, 1805, married 
Charity, sister of Squier Terrill. 

David Kirkpatrich, Esq., who came to this 
country with his father Alexander at the age of 
twelve, was well remembered by his grandson, 
Dr. Jacob Kirkpatrick. Old documents show 
that he was greatly esteemed and beloved. Plain 

3 * 



30 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

and simple in his habits, of strict integrity and 
sterling common sense, he was a man of great 
energy and self-reliance. We have an exponent 
of what he was in that fine substantial stone- 
house which he built at Mine Brook in 1765, with 
its thick firm walls laid in mortar almost as hard 
now as the gray sand- stone itself, and with floors 
made of white oak inch plank laid double. The 
old stone-work and the old pointing look nearly 
as fresh as on the addition recently built by the 
present occupant. With proper care the house 
might be made to last five centuries more. 

On a stone over the front door (but now con- 
cealed by a new portico,) are chiseled, " D. M. K. 
1765/' the three initial letters standing for " Da- 
vid and Mary Kirkpatrick." One of the oldest 
residents of Mine Brook, Mr. Heath, aged 
eighty-seven, well remembers hearing the old 
gentleman speak of the pains he took in putting 
up this dwelling-house. Indeed, whatever he 
undertook he did thoroughly, nor was he ever 
content not to be usefully occupied. The lily- 



THE KIRK PA TRICK FAMILY. 



81 



fingered exquisites of the present day would have 
met with many a stern rebuke from him in his 
broad Scotch brogue. Although he lived about 
two miles from the church at Baskingridge, he 
always preferred to walk while the rest of the 
family rode. It is said of him, when a member 
of the New Jersey Legislature, that although he 
would commence his journey on horseback, he 
soon dismounted and leading his horse walked 
the remainder of the way to Trenton. He lived 
to enter his ninety-first year ; educated one son at 
the College of New Jersey; knew of at least six 
grandsons who were liberally educated; and at 
his death left a numerous posterity to bless his 
memory. In his last will executed thirteen years 
before his death, we see the character of the man. 
It begins : " I, David Kirkpatrick, having arrived 
at a good old age, and being desirous of arranging 
and settling my worldly affairs, and directing how 
the property wherewith it has pleased God to 
reward my labors should be disposed of after my 
death," etc., and ends : " And now having dis- 



32 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



posed of all my worldly concerns, I humbly com- 
mit my immortal soul to God my Heavenly 
Father in an humble hope that through the 
merits and intercession of Jesus Christ my Saviour 
and Redeemer I shall be raised again at the last 
day in glory everlasting." Both as to the great 
concerns of eternity and the things of time he 
seems to have acted in the spirit of the motto of 
the Coat of Arms of the Kirkpatrick family : "I 
make sure.' 9 



II. . 

KEV. JACOB KIllKPATRJCK, D. I). 

TN the northern part of Warren township, 
Somerset County, New Jersey, in the beautiful 
valley of the Passaic, about six miles south-east 
from Baskingridge stands the house where was 
born, on the 8th of August, 1785, Jacob Kirk- 
patrick, son of Alexander Kirkpatrick and Sarah 
Carle. On the south lies Stony Hill, and on 
the north extending half a mile to the banks 
of the Passaic is a slope of green and fertile 
meadow, while in the distance in full view is 
the continuous range of high land in Morris 
County known as Long Hill, covered with well- 
tilled farms and dotted with comfortable farm- 
houses. The lasting spring of pure water not far 
from the door seems to tell the stranger as he 
slakes his thirst, that many who once drank of it 

33 



34 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

have been scattered far and wide and are now 
sleeping in the dust. 

Here on a tract of four hundred acres taken 
from the large landed estate of Judge Carle, the 
parents settled soon after their marriage and en- 
deavored to train up their family in the fear of 
God. The responsible charge of thirteen children 
who grew up to manhood and womanhood was 
committed to their trust. In this work they were 
assisted by the able and faithful servants of God, 
the Eev. Samuel Kennedy, M. D., and the Rev. 
Robert Finley, D. D., successively pastors of the 
Church of Baskingridge on whose ministrations 
they attended. They were regular in their at- 
tendance at the sanctuary after the example of his 
Scotch ancestors, and never did Alexander Kirk- 
patrick and his family disturb the devotions of 
the congregation by arriving after the public 
exercises had begun. He was habitually so early 
that one of his neighbors, it is said, never began 
his preparations until he had seen Mr. Kirkpat- 
rick drive by his door; and often, when that 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. D. 



85 



tardy neighbor, whom for the sake of the inci- 
dent we will call John. Smith, reached the church, 
the wags who were hanging around the door were 
accustomed to say to each other with a wink of 
the eye : " It's time to go into meeting, for John 
Smith has come." The records of the Basking- 
ridge Church show that Mr. Kirkpatrick was an 
active and useful member. 

Much of the time of Jacob's childhood, when 
not prosecuting English studies in the common 
schools of the neighborhood was occupied in such 
labor on the farm as suited his age. He was 
accustomed to relate to his own children how 
often he had taken the grist to mill on horseback 
and driven the team over the mountain with 
loads of wood. All these labors served to 
strengthen a constitution naturally good, and to 
prepare him for that constant exposure and toil- 
some service to which he was to be subjected in 
after life as a minister of Christ. 

When he was thirteen or fourteen years of age, 
a circumstance occurred which made that, in all 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



probability, a turning-point in the history of his 
life. He had been drinking, after the custom of 
those times, some intoxicating liquor with one of 
his companions, when suddenly he turned around 
to his friend and said, with great earnestness: 
"We ought never to drink any more liquor; if 
we don't stop drinking we'll become drunkards." 
He did stop from that hour ; and for the remainder 
of life, not only as a personal safeguard, but for 
the sake of the example, he was a total abstinence 
man. His companion formed no such resolution, 
but continued to drink until the habit became too 
inveterate to be overcome, and he died a drunkard. 

It is not improbable that young Kirkpatrick 
had been awakened to thoughtfulness on this sub- 
ject by something he had heard from the lips of 
his pastor. On one occasion, early in his ministry, 
Dr. Finley exchanged pulpits for a Sabbath with 
the pastor of a neighboring church. At the latter 
place the tavern was opposite to, or near by the 
church, and with the bar kept open on Sunday as 
well as other days, according to the old custom. 



\ 



REV JACOB KIRKPATRICK, JD. D. 37 

Being much fatigued with his ride, he dismounted 
and walked into the bar-room and drank some- 
thing stronger than water for his refreshment. 
As he passed out of the tavern for the church he 
saw two young men, one of whom he overheard 
saying to the other: "Come, let's go hear the 
Dominie preach — he has just»had 6 a smaller/ and 
I guess we'll have a good sermon." How good 
the sermon he preached to that congregation was, 
tradition does not inform us, but he felt that a 
pungent sermon had been preached to him in the 
brief sentence uttered by that young man. It so 
affected him that he resolved henceforth that no 
man should have the opportunity to quote him as 
an example to justify drinking-habits ; he resolved 
to abandon altogether the use of intoxicating 
liquor as a beverage — and those who knew him 
were aware that for Dr. Finley to resolve was to 
execute. 

At the age of fourteen Jacob began his course 
of classical study, making his home with his 
grandfather, David Kirkpatrick, Esq., at Mine 



38 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



Brook, because it was four miles nearer to Bask- 
ingridge than his father's house. The following 
written by his own hand has been found among 
his papers : 

FINLEY'S FIRST CLASS. 

" In the autumn @f the year seventeen hundred 
and ninety-nine, (1799) two lads of about the 
same age, commenced the study of the Latin 
Grammar together, under the instruction of the 
Rev. Eobert Finley, then pastor of the Presby- 
terian Church of Baskingridge. Their names 
were Samuel Lewis Southard and Jacob Kirk- 
patrick. Their parents resided within the bounds 
of the parish and were members of Mr. Finley's 
church. Mr. Finley (afterwards Dr. Finley) was 
recently entered upon the duties of a pastor, and 
but lately from the College of New Jersey. 
(There was no Theological Seminary then in our 
land). From the combined motive of doing good 
and obtaining a livelihood, he conceived the enter- 
prise of an academy. The two lads above named 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. D. 



39 



formed the nucleus around which a number clus- 
tered, until there was formed in that place a large 
and nourishing classical school. 

"They had progressed part way through the 
Latin Grammar (then Ruddiman's) when they 
were joined by Philip Lindsly, a youth from the 
same neighborhood. He had been a short time 
at school at Morristown, but he fell into the same 
class. A short time again elapsed when a fourth 
one arrived. He then wrote his name Jacob R. 
T. Frelinghuysen. He was the son of General 
Frederick Frelinghuysen, (then living at Mill- 
stone, Somerset County), of Revolutionary mem- 
ory. These four constituted the first class of the 
Academy of Baskingridge, under the care of Rev. 
R. Finley. We were guided in our studies of 
the different classics, which then constituted the 
course in the lower classes in the College of New 
Jersey, till the commencement of the College, 
then the last Wednesday of September, A. D., 
1802. 

" We presented ourselves for examination before 



40 KIRKPATMCR MEMORIAL, 



Dr. S. S. Smith, then President of the College, 
and were admitted to a standing in the Junior 
Class. 

" The faculty of the College then consisted of 
Samuel S. Smith, D. D., LL. D., President, John 
Maclean, M. D., Vice President, and two Tutors, 
James Carnahan and Benjamin B. Hopkins. 
There was no other professor connected with the 
institution. Dr. Smith preached regularly to us 
on the Sabbath. There was no other clergyman 
even of any denomination in Princeton. 

"The College edifice (now the Old North Col- 
lege) had been burned in the spring previous and 
rebuilt during the summer of 1802. The rooms 
were not deemed sufficiently dry for two weeks, 
during which we boarded in private families 'in 
town,' as the expression was. P. Lindsly and the 
writer of this, furnished a room together, which 
we obtained by lot. This was the way the rooms 
were disposed of at our first occupying the new 
edifice. The room we lived in was 24, second 
entry, and we remained together there to the end - 



REV. JACOB KIRK PA TB ICR, D. D. 41 



of our course, iu September, 1804. We sang: 
4 Now we are free from College rules/ Each 
having obtained his diploma we separated." 

That was a class of unusual ability, containing, 
as it did, Rev. Philip Lindsly, D. D., Rev. Jacob 
Kirkpatrick, D. D., Rev. Nathaniel S. Prime, 
D. D., Rev. Alfred Ely, D. D., Hon. Samuel L. 
Southard, Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, Hon. 
George Chambers, Hon. Thomas H. Crawford, 
and Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, to mention no 
others. His room-mate, Philip Lindsly, was a 
man of great originality and power, and distin- 
guished himself as an educator of youth, and the 
career of Frelinghuysen and Southard as Counsel- 
lors at law and Statesmen, proved them to be men 
of mark, and has made them an honor to their 
native state. 

Immediately after taking his first degree, young 
Kirkpatrick entered his name as a student of law 
in the office of George C. Maxwell, Esq., Flem- 
ington, at the same time teaching in the Academy 
at Somerville. After pursuing the study of the 

4 * 



42 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



law for about three years, during a visit to his 
native parish at a season of revival under the 
ministrations of Dr. Finley in 1807, his views 
and feelings on the subject of religion became so 
changed, that he relinquished the law and conse- 
crated himself to the work of the gospel ministry. 
This change was not determined upon without a 
severe internal conflict. Quite a number of his 
most highly esteemed classmates were just about 
to begin their career at the bar, and he would 
naturally prefer to continue to be, in a measure, 
associated with them. Besides, that was a time 
when our country had scarcely begun to recover 
from the overwhelming influence of French infi- 
delity—many of our influential public men were 
skeptics — the Christian ministry, as a profession, 
was held at a large discount, and conscientious 
piety was looked upon by not a few who thought 
themselves to be wise, as contemptible hypocrisy. 
The popular current was in the wrong direction, 
and there were men of high standing and influ- 
ence, who would say, that for any young man of 



REV JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, D. D. 



48 



education and talents to undertake the business 
of a preacher, was to bury himself for life. But 
our friend abandoned his long cherished aspira- 
tions for distinction, and resolved to endure for 
Christ's sake all the opprobrium his decision 
might provoke; and his whole subsequent course 
has proved that in this conflict the change wrought 
was genuine, and that grace was surely triumphant. 

His successor, the Rev. William J. Wright, 
thus refers to this epoch in Dr. Kirkpatrick's 
life : " The struggle was a close one whether to 
keep back part of the price, or to throw heart, 
soul, mind, and strength into the work of the 
Lord ; and I think I hear the percussive words 
of Chrysostom ringing in his ears, 6 Contemn 
riches aud thou shalt be rich; contemn glory and 
thou shalt be glorious ; contemn injuries and thou 
shalt be a conqueror; contemn rest and thou 
shalt gain rest; contemn earth and thou shalt 
gain heaven.' The year passes and we behold 
the ardent worldling humbled and sitting at the 
foot of the cross. The struggle had passed, and 



44 KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



the world was surrendered for ever. In the bit- 
terness of the contest he had beaten the world and 
trampled it under foot. No one who knew Dr. 
Kirkpatrick but must have felt that he gained a 
rare and unsurpassed victory, and the triumph 
appreciates in importance as we look at the then 
opposing influence of associates and the time- 
honored traditions of his earlier years." 

The Rev. John L. Janeway, D. D., also says 
of him : " His talents, his eloquence, his practical 
business turn of mind and popular manners would 
have led to eminence and wealth in the profession 
[of the law]. Ambition beckoned him on, but 
God converted him, and had other work for him ; 
he designed him for the ministry. After due and 
serious reflection, feeling assured that God had 
called him to preach the gospel, he turned his 
back upon the law with its honors and emolu- 
ments, and commenced his preparation for the 
self-denying life of the ministry. And after fifty- 
six years of toil he laid down and died a poor 
man. The only result of his years of labor was a 



REV. JACOB K1RKPA TRICK, D.D. 45 



bare yearly support. Say — is not such a man 
Worthy to be esteemed and held in grateful re- 
membrance, who for the sake of souls gave up a 
profession which opened up honors and riches? 
But he counted the cost ; he took up the cross and 
looked for his reward not from this world nor 
from men, but from his Master in heaven." 

The final decision having been made he imme- 
diately placed himself under the care of the Rev. 
John Woodhull, D.D., of Freehold, Monmouth Co., 
who at that time, when there were no Theological 
Seminaries, was often resorted to by candidates for 
the ministry for instruction in Theology. He 
took lodgings in the house of Mr. John Sutfin, 
not far from the old Tennent Church, and over 
against the Parsonage, once occupied by the cele- 
brated Rev. William Tennent, and then by his 
successor Dr. Woodhull. Here, associated with 
Jacob T. Field, a fellow-student, he spent about 
two years. He and his friend were taken under 
the care of the Presbytery of New Brunswick at 
the same time, October 7, 1807 ; their next ap- 



46 KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



pearance was April 26, 1809, when each read a 
lecture, and they were both licensed to preach the 
gospel on the 8th of August, 1809. The pastoral 
relation between the Rev. Thomas Grant having 
been dissolved on the 26th of April previous, Mr. 
Kirkpatrick preached for that people for the first 
time in the month of September, and afterwards 
by appointment of the Presbytery five Sabbaths 
in December, 1809, and in February and April, 
1810. This opened the way for his being called 
to take the pastoral office among them, as appears 
from the Records of the Presbytery at Trenton, 
April 24, 1810. 

This was a call for "five years/' which the 
Presbytery refused to put into his hands, but 
resolved to ordain him and appoint him a stated 
supply for five years. 

Dr. Kirkpatrick states that "When it [this 
call] was read in the Presbytery, Dr. S. Stanhope 
Smith casting his keen eye upon me, remarked : 
( I would throw it back in their teeth/ On the 
19th of June, 1810, the Presbytery met in the 



REV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, D. D. 47 

Amwell First Church and heard the candidate's 
trial sermon for ordination from Col. iii. 4, and 
on the next day, June 20th, Mr. Kirkpatrick was 
ordained, Dr. John Woodhull preaching the ser- 
mon and offering the ordaining prayer. The 
Rev. Holloway W. Hunt gave the charge to the 
minister, and delivered " a suitable address to the 
people." 

At a meeting of the Presbytery held April 25, 
1815, the Amwell people having acted upon the 
advice previously given them, a regular call was 
presented; and on the 16th of June following in 
the " Old Stone Church," (formerly occupied by 
a German congregation then dissolved), Mr. 
Kirkpatrick was formally installed the pastor of 
the Amwell churches, his cousin the Rev. Wil- 
liam B. Sloan preaching the sermon, and the Rev. 
George S. Woodhull giving the charges to pastor 
and people. 

The result was a happy one, evincing the wis- 
dom of the Presbytery, the popularity of the 
young pastor, and the kind feeling with which 



48 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



the people abandoned the deep-rooted prejudice 
they had formed against settling a pastor in the 
ordinary way. 

In his half century sermon Dr. Kirkpatrick 
says, " It was the remark of some when my pre- 
decessor left them, 'that they would not call 
another man for life.' Still they have had one 
almost for life, and perhaps they will keep him as 
long as he lives." And so it proved, for he com- 
pleted fifty-six years of residence among them, 
and the pastoral relation was dissolved only by 
his death. 

In his half century sermon we have his mature 
views on this subject : " In conclusion let me 
say, I have always looked upon the pastoral 
relation, constituted by an installation service, as 
a relation which ought not to be for trifles dis- 
solved. Instances there are and have been, where 
circumstances demanded a separation of pastor 
and people ; but is it not the fact that there are 
many dissolutions that are to be regretted ? In 
writing not long since to a beloved brother at the 



REV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, I). I). 49 



request of a vacant church, I said to him, ' I 
have nothing to say as to the salary which you 
receive or which you may expect if you remove ; 
but you and I are not to be governed by dollars 
and cents, but. by a sense of duty. If the hand 
of God waves and seems to say remove, remove, 
I can recommend the church of which I have 
been speaking/ " It is well known that on several 
occasions he received flattering overtures from 
other congregations, where his worldly condition 
would have been greatly improved, but his sense 
of duty united to his unchanging love for the 
people whom he had served in his youth con- 
strained him uniformly to reject them and to 
abide where he was. 

In 1853, Dr. Kirkpatrick relinquished one 
hundred dollars of his salary to secure the settle- 
ment of a colleague. This colleague was the 
Rev. Samuel M. Osmond, now pastor of the 
Presbyterian Church of Iowa City, Iowa. Dr. 
K. says : " For more than forty years I preached 
alternately in the 'United First' and 'Second' 



50 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



churches. In 1852 I urged that as both churches 
were large and able, they ought to have preaching 
in both houses every Sabbath. Some of my 
brethren and fathers whom I consulted advised a 
separation — that I had better leave one church. ■ 
Some advised a colleague. I took the latter 
course. In 1853 they called a colleague or co- 
pastor. 

"They who advised a separation of the churches 
gave as reasons, that a colleague might ingratiate 
himself into the good feelings of the people, as 
he probably would be young; and as I was on 
the decline, and going down, I might find myself 
in an unpleasant situation. But none of these 
things ever were manifest, even in the slightest 
degree. He always treated me as a father. I 
loved him, and love him still, but the tongue of 
eulogy is dumb. For four years we lived to- 
gether in friendship and peace, and love, and I 
think could have lived together till my gray hairs 
were laid in the grave; but his health not being 
very firm, he thought a removal to a different 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. I). 51 

part of the country might be advantageous and 
he left us." 

During the last year of his life arrangements 
were made for the settlement of a colleague with 
* him over the Am well United First Church, who 
should perform the more laborious part of the 
pastoral work. The Eev. William J. Wright 
was the person called to that office ; but his in- 
stallation did not take place until about a week 
before the death of the venerable senior pastor, 
who was then confined to the house, awaiting the 
call of his Master to go upward. 

The following article prepared for the press at 
the time by the writer of these sketches, is here 
introduced both for the sake of the memorable 
occasion, and on account of the facts, most of 
which were on that day, gathered from Dr. Kirk- 
patrick's own lips. It is entitled, 

A. GOLDJJN WEDDING. 

"In one of those hospitable mansions which 
were then and are now so numerous in old Mon- 



52 



KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



moutli Comity, New Jersey, on the thirteenth day 
of December, 1809, Jacob Kirkpatrick and Mary 
Sutfin were joined in holy wedlock by the Rev. 
John Woodhull, D. D., her pastor, and Ms theolo- 
gical preceptor. The newly wedded were soon 
found at Ringoes, in Hunterdon County, where 
the husband was laboring as a minister of Christ. 
On the 20th of June following he was ordained. 
In the same place they have remained until this 
day. On the 13th of December, 1859, the fiftieth 
anniversary of their marriage, their golden wed- 
ding was celebrated. The pastors of the adjacent 
Presbyterian churches and other clerical friends, 
with a large number of those who now are, or 
have been, under Dr. Kirkpatrick's pastoral 
charge, met at the Ringoes parsonage, and spent 
the day with the venerable couple and their as- 
sembled children and grandchildren. One person 
who witnessed the marriage ceremony, a sister of 
Mrs. K., was present. The groomsman and 
bridesmaid are yet living, but the infirmities of 
age, and the distance of the place of meeting, 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, D. D. 53 



prevented their attendance. Of their fourteen 
children, four sons have died, (one of whom was 
the late Rev. J. Kirkpatrick, Jr.), and ten chil- 
dren — four sons and six daughters, still survive — 
all of them professed followers of Christ, and all 
married except the two youngest daughters. Of 
their thirty grandchildren, twenty-four are living, 
and most of them, if not all, have been dedicated 
to God in baptism. 

"A rich and bountiful repast was furnished by 
the ladies of the congregation ; and golden tokens 
of respect and affection were liberally supplied by 
the guests to fill the 'purse of the aged pair. 

"In behalf of the assembly, the Rev. P. O. 
Studdiford, D. D., of Lambertville, in a most ap- 
propriate and happy manner, addressed Dr. and 
Mrs. Kirkpatrick. 

"The address was followed with prayer by the 
pastor of the Pennington Church. After these 
exercises were over, unexpectedly to all, the vene- 
rable patriarch arose, nearly overcome by emo- 
tion, and taking his position in the midst of the 
5 * 



54 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



crowd of his friends and spiritual children, he 
poured forth in strains of simple eloquence the 
feelings of his noble heart. Notwithstanding the 
many pleasing and striking occurrences of the 
celebration, this speech was unquestionably the 
event of the day. No description of the ready 
writer, no pen of a stenographer could do it full 
justice. To present it in its proper light, there 
would be needed a series of photographic impres- 
sions exhibiting the aspect of the speaker and 
audience at each successive moment, with the 
advantages of some new art that could arrest and 
give permanence to the intonations of the voice 
and to that powerful electric current which per- 
vaded and swayed the minds and hearts of those 
who hung upon the patriarch's lips. Even the 
little grandchildren seemed to catch the spirit of 
the scene as they gazed with a tender, wondering 
interest upon their honored grandsire. He re- 
marked that he was now addressing the grand- 
children of the grandchildren (fifth generation) 
of those who first called him to this pastoral 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. D. 55 



charge; that within his original field of labor, 
twelve miles square, in the township of Amwell, 
there was now living but one married couple, 
whom he found in wedlock at his settlement, and 
the husband (Mr. David Bellis) was here present. 
Since his own marriage, he had married about six 
hundred and thirty [at the time of his death, seven 
hundred and five] couples, and in some cases had 
officiated at the marriage of parents, children, and 
grandchildren; of the ministers who were mem- 
bers of the Presbytery of New Brunswick, at the 
time of his licensure, all have died except one, 
Dr. Isaac V. Brown, [since dead] ; though he had 
not moved from his place for half a century, he 
had belonged to two Synods and three Presbyte- 
ries; when he was ordained, there were connected 
with his charge ninety-four communicants, but 
now attached to the five Presbyterian churches 
occupying the same ground, there are at present 
nearly ten times that number in communion 
making no account of those who have died in the 
faith, or have transferred their relation to other 



56 



KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



churches. Dr. Kirkpatrick stated that this was 
the forty-ninth annual donation visit that had 
been made to his family since he became their 
pastor. Happy people! blessed with a long, an 
honored, a faithful, and a successful ministry; 
happy pastor so blessed in his work — ( May his bow 
abide in strength, and the arms of his hands be 
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of 
Jacob; happy husband and worthy 'help-meet' — 
may the blessings of the covenant rest on them 
and their descendants to the latest generation, and 
may their declining sun be bright to the last/ " 

Dr. Kirkpatrick's field of labor originally ex- 
tended from the Delaware Eiver, where Lambert- 
ville now stands, to the Somerset line. On this 
wide field he "made full proof of his ministry" in 
cold and heat, sunshine and storm, by day and by 
night, doing the work of a missionary. Many a 
time he has been compelled to do a large portion 
of his studying on horseback, or when riding in 
his carriage from place to place through the con- 
gregation, or to answer calls from a distance. 



REV JACOB KIRKPATR1CK, B. D. 57 



Whatever reputation he might have gained as a 
finished orator, or a profound scholar, was sacri- 
ficed to calls upon the sick, the dying, and the 
afflicted; to social visits in the families of his 
charge; to attendance on religious services on 
week-day evenings, and to the preaching of funeral 
sermons beyond, as well as within the bounds of 
his own parish. So great was his popularity as a 
preacher, that his services were in constant de- 
mand abroad, especially in revivals of religion. 
The weeks spent by him and his friend Dr. Stud- 
diford, in "doing the work of an evangelist" in 
various parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 
would fill up no small part of the fifty-six years 
of his ministry. Eminently successful as he was 
in winning souls among his own people, the ag- 
gregate of the spiritual harvests gathered in by 
others as the fruit of his labors far exceeds the 
results at home. He was the servant of any and 
every one that he might gain the more, following 
the example of his divine Master who "came not 
to be ministered to, but to minister." He had 



58 



RXBKPATMCK MEMORIAL. 



nothing of the proselyting spirit about him, but 
left every man to choose his own denomination 
and his own place of worship. If any of his 
own people preferred to leave his pastoral over- 
sight for another's, he never attempted to inter- 
pose an obstacle by either word or act. He had 
no ambition to convert men to himself, or to swell 
the number of his followers; for the great end he 
sought was gained when the power of godliness 
was increased in believers and souls were saved 
from death. His Christian magnanimity was above 
all praise. 

Of selfishness, vanity, pride, worldly ambition, 
envy, jealousy, wilfulness, and love of money, he 
had as little as any man the writer ever knew. 
He had a large, warm, generous heart, too gene- 
rous even to assert his own rights when they were 
infringed. He was a rare example of " the meek- 
ness and gentleness of Christ." Though he 
understood human nature well, and could often 
read a man's character at a glance, he never used 
this talent for selfish purposes but only to increase 



REV JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, I). I). 59 



his power over the conscience and the heart in 
private or from the pulpit. He had not set his 
heart on earthly things. He could appeal to his 
people with a clear conscience and say with Paul : 
" I have coveted no man's silver or gold, or ap- 
parel/' or with the Prophet Samuel : " Whose ox 
have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or 
whom have I defrauded ? whom have I oppressed ? 
or of whose hand have I received any bribe to 
blind mine eyes therewith ?" 

Few men have approached as near as he to a 
literal conformity to these precepts of our Lord : 
" But I say unto you that ye resist not evil ; but 
whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also. And if any man will 
sue* thee at the law and take away thy coat, let 
him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall 
compel thee to go a mile with him, go with him 
twain. Give to him that asketh of thee and from 
him that would borrow of thee turn not thou 
away." 

Whether or not he did sometimes yield too 



60 KIRKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



much, and submit to the infringement of his rights 
to a greater degree than was consistent with the 
good of others as well as of himself, it would be 
presumption to affirm ; for he acted conscientiously 
and was accustomed to say that he could not do 
otherwise. He was exceedingly jealous of him- 
self lest he should either say or do anything that 
might hinder the salutary effect of the gospel 
upon his hearers. If he could but bring them to 
Christ he was willing to do or bear almost any- 
thing. 

I have sometimes thought that there was a 
strange commingling in his constitution of the 
gentleness of woman with the heart of a lion. 
His Christian courage would have taken him at 
any time to the lion's den or the martyr's stake 
if the honor of religion had demanded it. 

Though he was mild, easy and courteous in his 
manners, he was rigidly exact in everything that 
related to the keeping of a promise, the meeting 
of an engagement or the fulfilment of an appoint- 
ment. He abounded in shrewd sayings and 



* 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA THICK, D. D. 61 



humorous anecdote, but such was his nice discri- 
mination between the true and the false that he 
was always found adhering to the simple verity. 
He was one whom it was well nigh impossible 
not to love with a more than ordinary attachment. 
His associates in the ministry, young and old, to 
the end of his life, took delight in visiting his 
hospitable dwelling; and whoever crossed his 
threshold with a burdened sorrowing heart, soon' 
returned with new zeal and courage to the calls 
of duty. And wherever he went he was more 
than welcome. His cheerful countenance made 
his very presence a light in the domestic and 
social circle. Even when his friends visited him 
to condole with him in his days of bereavement 
and deep affliction they wondered at the grace 
that sustained him, and retired with the convic- 
tion that instead of imparting consolation they 
were receiving comfort and instruction from him. 
What a rich treasure such a man is and must be 
to the community in which he dwells. 

Arithmetic cannot present to the eye a proper 

6 



62 



KIBKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



estimate of the amount of good he accomplishes 
while living, and the blessed fruits gathered long 
after he lias passed away. 

Dr. Kirkpatrick's ministry was honored of God 
by ten seasons of refreshing, the revivals of 1843 
and 1846 exceeding in power either of the others, 
for in each of these two years more than one hun- 
dred were added to the number of the communi- 
cants, and among them several of his own chil- 
dren. The statistics kindly furnished by the 
Rev. William J. Wright, pastor of the Amwell 
United First, and the Rev. John Burrows, pastor 
of the Amwell Second Church, show that in those 
two churches six hundred and twenty-one have 
been received on profession, and if to these were 
added those of the Amwell First Church, (which 
could not be learned in season owing to the sick- 
ness of the pastor), the number would doubtless 
reach seven hundred. The fact tha# during this 
long period only fifty-three were received by cer- 
tificate in one church, and sixteen in the other, 
proves how little that community has changed by 



BEV. JACOB KIBKPATBICK, D. D. 63 



immigration; and also reminds us that the 
churches in most of our agricultural districts are 
engaged in the important work of training and 
sending out those who are to be the pillars of the 
churches in our cities and in various other por- 
tions of the land. 

During his ministry he preached about eleven 
thousand times, and attended about nine hundred 
funerals. Much of his time was employed in 
attending the judicatories of the church from 
which he was never absent without good cause, 
and in which his counsels were always wise and 
helpful. He was one of the founders of the Hun- 
terdon County Bible Society in 1816, uniformly 
one of its most active supporters, and for many 
years to the time of his death, its Secretary. He 
was among the earliest and most energetic pro- 
moters of the Temperance Eeformation, and 
cheerfully responded to frequent calls to lecture 
and preach on that subject in Hunterdon and the 
adjacent counties. Without attempting learned 
discussion or indulging in nice metaphysical ab- 



64 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



stractions, he laid hold of the giant evil in the 
concrete, and sought to apply a practical remedy 
that would be effectual. To his people he was a 
ready helper in every way. He wrote their wills, 
and deeds and leases ; gave them legal counsel to 
the extent of his knowledge of the law which he 
had studied three years, and with a degree of wis- 
dom, disinterestedness and affection extremely rare 
imparted to them advice, such as they needed, in 
both their temporal and spiritual concerns. He 
was ever ready for any good work, and willing to 
deny himself to almost any extent for the welfare 
of others, and the advancement of the cause of 
Christ. 

It may here be added that on the ground which 
he began to cultivate in 1810, there are now six 
Presbyterian Churches, one Protestant Reformed 
Dutch Church, three Baptist Churches, and five 
Methodist Churches. 

A communication from the Rev. Samuel M. 
Osmond, the colleague of Dr. Kirkpatrick, giving 
his views and impressions, is here inserted. 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. D. . 65 



He says: "I was providentially brought into 
intimate association with both the subjects of the 
proposed Memorial, more especially with Dr. K., 
as his colleague for four years. I can recall 
nothing that transpired in my intercourse with 
either of them that brings up an unpleasant 
thought, or casts the slightest shadow upon their 
revered and cherished memories. 

"My acquaintance was first with the son, and 
through him with his venerable father. During 
the Senior year in College, and through the whole 
of the Seminary course, I was a classmate of 
Jacob. Your proposed Memorial will need no 
additional testimony such as I might offer to do 
justice to his high order of talent, his brilliant 
wit, his consistent devoted piety, or to illustrate 
the characteristics of this stage of his too brief 
career. 

"As our Seminary course was approaching its 
close, it occurred that the congregations of the 
United First and Second churches of Amwell 

yielded to the request to call a co-pastor. The 

6 * 



66 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



thoughts of the people with one accord turned 
to Jacob, who, had he consented, would have re- 
ceived a unanimous and enthusiastic call. It was, 
however, his conviction, that a stranger might do 
better; and it was at his suggestion, without my 
knowledge of any arrangement of the kind, I 
was invited to spend a Sabbath with them. The 
result was that, in June, 1853, I was ordained 
and installed as associate pastor with Dr. Kirk- 
patrick, a position which I occupied until my 
impaired health seemed to render a change neces- 
sary. That change was made at the cost of one 
of the sorest trials of my affections that life's 
vicissitudes have ever brought. 

" I shall never forget my first sight of Dr. Kirk- 
patrick. The train had been detained, and it was 
at a late hour on Saturday night, previous to the 
day I was to preach for the Amwell people, that 
I found myself at the door of the well-known 
Bingoes Parsonage. I was a somewhat modest 
young man, and it was not without a degree of 
trepidation I knocked for admission. The door 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. D. 67 



was speedily opened by the Doctor himself. The 
first glance at that benevolent, -beaming face, the 
warm pressure of his hand, his affectionate words 
of greeting gave me more than re-assurance. 

"I needed nothing more to make me feel per- 
fectly at home. I was in love at first sight, and 
had I after the first moments of that reception 
been called upon to decide whether or not I would 
be his colleague, I should have waited for no 
stronger guaranty that the relationship would be 
a most agreeable one so far as he was concerned, 
than these first impressions had already given me. 

" Nor did I ever have cause to modify those im- 
pressions. Years of close, endearing, sacred in- 
tercourse only deepened them. They will last 
while memory lasts. 

" The Doctor lived in the Parsonage at Kingoes. 
My residence was in the bounds of the Second 
Church, near Mount Airy. We each preached 
on alternate Sabbaths at the two churches. On 
Communion occasions the two congregations united 
in the service, and I was thus furnished with the 



68 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



principal opportunities I enjoyed for hearing the 
Doctor preach. His sermons were constructed 
with great simplicity, were never wholly written 
out, but were by no means extemporaneous in the 
usual sense of that term. As a preacher, he was 
more practical than doctrinal; yet the great prin- 
ciples of gospel truth were never lost sight of, 
and the distinctive views of Presbyterians as to 
doctrine, order and ordinances were kept before 
the people with such effect, as to make them de- 
cided, though at the same time liberal Presbyte- 
rians. He had a certain summary, but telling, 
way of disposing of controverted points — such, 
for instance, as the mode of baptism, that I have 
never heard surpassed for practical effectiveness. 
His people were thus in a remarkable degree pre- 
served from being 'carried away by every wind 
of doctrine/ It was a noticeable fact, that every 
now and then, while proselyting was one of the 
very last things that Dr. Kirkpatrick could ever 
be charged with, there would be additions from 
other denominations. Nothing but Presbyterian- 



KEV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, JD. D. 69 



ism gained much foothold, or manifested much 
vigor of growth in the neighborhood of the Am- 
well churches. 

" An element of power in the Doctor's preaching 
consisted in the depth and tenderness of his emo- 
tional nature. It was evident that he yearned 
over his people with the truest spiritual affection. 
Often his swelling heart would impede his utter- 
ance. It was no unusual occurrence for him to 
weep as he spoke of the love of Jesus, or gave 
expression to the tender appeals of the gospel; 
and none can doubt that 

* The tear 

That fell on his Bible was sincere/ 

"There can be no doubt that in the earlier years 
of his ministry, before his powers had begun to 
wane through age, he was a more than ordinarily 
effective and eloquent preacher. The old people 
of the Amwell and other congregations who ' re- 
membered the former days/ had much to say of 
powerful sermons which they had heard him 



70 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



preach, generally from texts somewhat out of the 
usual order. 

"His nature was fervid, but he was not moved 
by mere impulse. Principle regulated him. Duty 
was his guiding star. Her claims were fulfilled 
simply, promptly, and to the best of his ability. 
It would have to be a serious matter that would 
prevent him from taking his stand at the post of 
duty. Insuperable obstacles only kept him away 
from meetings of ecclesiastical bodies of which he 
was a member, and the money he took from his 
moderate salary to defray the expenses, would 
alone have made a handsome patrimony for his 
family. He would cross swollen streams, find a 
path through huge snow-drifts, encounter driving 
storms and imperil health and life, but he would 
not fail of his appointments if it was possible to 
keep them. He had once arranged with a brother 
who had not half his years for an exchange. The 
day was very unpleasant; the young brother 
thought it entirely too bad to turn out; but punc- 
tual to the hour of service the old Doctor was on 



BEV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, JD. D. 71 



hand to fulfil his part of the contract, and to 
teach the mortified brother a lesson, he would not 
be likely soon to forget. 

" As however age crept on he shrank more and 
more from wearisome journeys and exposure to 
wintry storms. The self-sacrifice involved in 
such duties became painful, but none the less did 
he go steadily forward, and even after he was 
eighty years old he performed labors and encoun- 
tered hardships that would have taxed the powers 
of many a youthful pastor. 

" He was a patriarch among his people. They 
came to him with their troubles as children would 
come to a father ; and he composed their difficul- 
ties, soothed their sorrows, and was ever ready to 
do anything in his power for their benefit or 
direction. 

"I can hardly trust myself to speak of Dr. 
Kirkpatrick as I knew him at his own home. 
His hospitality, his thoughtful kindness, his affec- 
tionate yet ever gentlemanly bearing, his enter- 
taining conversation full of anecdote and remi- 



72 



KIRKPATRICR MEMORIAL. 



niscences of other days are rarely surpassed. 
There was something about the old Parsonage at 
Ringoes that had for me and my wife an irre- 
sistible attraction. In our rides through the 
congregation, we were almost always sure to find 
ourselves there, if but for a few pleasant moments 
before our return, and never did we fail of such 
welcome as to make us feel perfectly at home. 
The Doctor was not the only element of attract- 
iveness that drew us thither. All that have ever 
shared our good fortune will recall other dear 
ones of that peaceful home like-minded with its 
revered head, and there will be many to breathe 
the sigh of regret that the delightful circle has at 
last been broken, which has so often been opened 
for the admission alike of friend and stranger. 

" It has been my privilege thrice to re-visit New 
Jersey since my removal to the West. I could 
notice the change that years were making on the 
inmates of the parsonage. Age was tracing deeper 
lines on the brow of the venerable Pastor. The 
companions of his earlier years were fast passing 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. I). 73 



away. The feeling that he was a stranger and a 
pilgrim was evidently growing upon him. But 
there was no repining, no sadness; nothing but 
the peaceful waiting of a spirit, disengaged from 
most of life's ties, lingering yet on the shore on 
which he had seen so many friends of other days 
set sail, with his own sails outspread for the 
breeze. There was no restless impatient longing, 
but simple acquiescence with the divine will only, 
' choosing rather to depart and to be with 
Christ/ " 

A letter from his son-in-law, J. G. Bowne, of 
Oakdale, New Jersey, furnished me with the par- 
ticulars of his sickness and death, with an extract 
from which I will bring this imperfect tribute to 
our beloved father to a close : 

" During the last part of autumn he told me 

he was not as well as he had been, and he feared 

he would not be able to attend to his parochial 

duties during the winter. We noticed that his 

appetite failed, and he complained of constant 
7 



74 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



nausea and distress at his stomach. His pipe* 
(of which you know he was fond) was laid aside, 
and his flesh wasted from his body. His decline 
was very gradual. He preached his last sermon 
on the first Sabbath of January from Job xvi. 22, 
* When a few years are come, then I shall go the 
way whence I shall not return. 7 I saw him often 
and was satisfied that he was goiug down, although 
he seemed to think he might again preach. He 
was perfectly resigned, had no fear nor even wish 
as to the final issue of his disease. He said — The 
loving Saviour whom he had tried to serve sixty 
years would not forsake him now. He spent 
much of the time in the room with his family, 
walking without assistance from his bed-room 
several times each day. He conducted family 
worship regularly, and on the Saturday evening 

* Dr. K. never used tobacco until his thirtieth year. It was 
prescribed by his physician for the asthma, from which distress- 
ing malady he was at times a great sufferer. He was not an apo- 
logist for the habit, but his advice to a mere amateur at smoking 

was that he toould do well to let it alone. 



REV JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. D. 



75 



before he died he could not rise without help. 
The family were much alarmed thinking it was 
palsy, but in relating the circumstance to me on 
Monday, he said ' It was only a sleepy feeling in 
one of his ankles/ He prayed with his family, 
as usual, on Tuesday night, May 1st, and slept 
comfortably until three o'clock Wednesday morn- 
ing, when mother discovered he was awake. He 
told her his head hurt him. It was his last word. 
He was unconscious, after that folded his arms on 
his breast, laid entirely still, and Mr. Schenck 
who stood by his bed-side, told me that he died 
so quietly he could not tell the moment when." 

Thus, early on the morning of the 2d day of 
May, 1866, this venerable servant of God went 
to his rest. The funeral took place on Saturday, 
May 5th, the services at the house being con- 
ducted by the writer at the request of Mrs. Kirk- 
patrick who was unable to go out. At the church 
before a large audience, including several clergy- 
men, the funeral sermon was preached by the 
Rev. Peter O. Studdiford, D. D., from 2 Cor. 



76 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



viii. 16, "Thanks be to God, which put the same 
earnest care into the heart of Titus for you." 
The devotional exercises were conducted by Dr. 
John L. Janeway and the Rev. Messrs. Burrows, 
Spayd, and Gardiner, and Dr. Janeway delivered 
an address at the grave. The elders of the church 
bore the remains to their final resting place. The 
people of his late charge begged the privilege of 
defraying the funeral expenses, and are making 
arrangements for the erection of a suitable monu- 
ment to his memory. His colleague, the Rev. 
William J. Wright, now successor in the pastoral 
office preached a Memorial Sermon on the 27th 
of May following, from Psalm cxlix. 4, " He will 
beautify the meek with salvation." 

On the 20th of June, 1860, the fiftieth anni- 
versary of his ordination, Dr. Kirkpatrick 
preached a historical sermon which he concluded 
with these words : " I have looked to yonder 
grave-yard as the place where the resurrection 
morn will find me ; and if I arise in the likeness 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, D. D. 



77 



of Jesus to his name be all the glory." Precious 
man ! 

" Sweet is the savor of his name, 
And soft his sleeping bed." 

Amid all the agitations and strifes in Church 
and State he strove to the utmost to " keep the 
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." His 
was a united people from the beginning to the 
end of his ministry, and in answer to his prayers 
may they ever so continue. He earnestly longed 
for the day when the watchmen upon the walls 
of Zion should " see eye to eye when the bar- 
riers which separate the friends of Christ on earth 
should be broken down; and when all men, 
dwelling in concord, should love one another with 
pure hearts fervently. Lovely, loving and be- 
loved, he has found a home in just such a world 
as his soul desired, where, in the presence of the 
God of love in whom he delighted, he has joined 
multitudes for whose salvation he wept and 
prayed, where friendship cannot die, and perfect 
love shall for ever reign. 

7*' 



III. 

MEV. JACOB KIRK PATRICK, Jr. 

nnHE Bev. Jacob Kirkpatrick, Jr., the eighth 
son of the Rev. Jacob Kirkpatrick, D. D., 
was born October 6, 1828, in the village of Bin- 
goes, shortly before the family removed to the 
Craven property, which has since been occupied 
as the Parsonage. 

Those who knew him in his boyhood will 
remember him as a lad small, quiet, silent, retir- 
ing, yet closely observant of passing events, more 
fond of books than of play — bearing on his counte- 
nance lines of deep thought unusual for one of his 
years. The bright glances which shot from be- 
neath those drooping eyelids revealed the intellec- 
tual fire which had already begun to burn intensely 
within. Often did the teachers of the public 
school in his native village, where he acquired 

78 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, JR. 79 



the rudiments of his education, find an over- 
match in their modest pupil, especially in mathe- 
matical calculations. 

He was ever ready to do his share of the many 
services needed in a large family at a country 
parsonage. If there was any toilsome or unplea- 
sant task to be performed, his willing mind 
prompted him to be among the first to undertake 
it. He was a most considerate and loving son, 
an affectionate brother, and kind and gentle in 
his treatment towards all. His childhood and 
youth seemed to be " without spot or blemish." 
His early companions could remember no dis- 
honorable, selfish, or ungenerous act, no unkind 
word ; and his superiors in age never could lay to 
his charge the utterance of a false or profane 
word, or the performance of a deed foolish,- ma- 
licious, or in any wise discreditable. He was an 
exception to the old proverb : " A prophet is not 
without honor save in his own country and in his 
own house." So fair was the record of his early 
life, that if he could have consented to become the 



80 KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

colleague of his father, he would have commanded 
the confidence and respect of the people as a ser- 
vant of God, while he held a large place in their 
affections. But his delicate, sensitive nature 
shrank from the undertaking, although it would 
have been no small pleasure to him to comfort 
and assist his father in his declining years. 

But although his course of life in his youth 
was so unexceptionable he felt himself to be a 
sinner against God ; indeed there is reason to be- 
lieve that his upright conduct at this period is 
due not so much to his naturally amiable dispo- 
sition as to the restraints of conscience and the 
deep religious impressions to which he was sub- 
ject from childhood. Dr. Kirkpatrick was never 
in the habit of delivering long moral and reli- 
gious lectures to his children, indeed he said very 
little to them on the subject of their personal 
duty, but that little was full of meaning and to 
the point. Next to his own example and that 
of his like-minded help-meet, was the influence 
of the Scripture reading and prayer at the family 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, JR. 81 



altar morning and evening. That heart must be 
hard that could remain unmoved while this tender 
father with strong emotion wrestled with God 
for the salvation of his children in their presence. 
They could not doubt that he sought for them 
first of all " the kingdom of God and his right- 
eousness." Such scenes often repeated could 
scarcely fail to make an indelible impression the 
effect of which would some day be manifested. 

The happy issue in Jacob's case was reached 
when he was just fifteen years of age, during a 
powerful work of grace which added one hundred 
and seven to the communion of the churches 
under his father's pastoral care. In the parlor 
of the Old Parsonage he appeared with several 
others before the Session of the Amwell United 
First Church, and after examination he with two 
of his younger sisters were enrolled as communi- 
cants on the 12th of October, 1843. 

The decision to make a public profession of 
religion was also a determination to serve God in 
the ministry of the gospel of his Son. To do 



82 KIBKPATBICK MEMORIAL. 



this, he, with the advice of his father, resolved to 
begin the requisite course of preparatory study. 
The necessary steps having been taken, within a 
few weeks after he had sat down at the commu- 
nion table, he accompanied by his venerable 
father, entered his name as a pupil in the High 
School of the Messrs. H. and S. M. Hamill, at 
Lawrenceville, New Jersey. Here he continued 
for two and a-half years. A complete record of 
all his classical and literary exercises throughout 
this period is to be found among the archives of 
the school, and a more honorable record no pupil 
of that Institution has ever been able to exhibit. 
He stood "primus inter pares/' Undemonstra- 
tive as he was, his superior scholarship joined 
with the high tone of his consistent piety soon 
commanded the interested attention of his fellow 
pupils, and awakened a high esteem which with- 
out either envy or jealousy, continued to increase 
as long as he remained. This was a beautiful 
example of the power of unconscious influence ; 
for almost without knowing it he was exercising 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, JR. 83 



daily a controlling moral power over the whole 
school. Had his life ended when he left Law- 
renceville, it could have been truly said that he 
had not lived in vain. 

After leaving the High School he entered the 
College of New Jersey, where he was found com- 
manding the respect of all as the faithful Chris- 
tian student. Soon his exact scholarship and 
close application marked him out as one of the 
candidates for the highest honors of his class ; but 
the failure of his eyes while a junior compelled 
him to leave College for a year, so that he did not 
take his first degree until 1850. 

From the College he went directly to the Theo- 
logical Seminary at Princeton, where he com- 
pleted the full course of study for the ministry. 
He was licensed in the autumn of 1852, by the 
Presbytery of Raritan, of which his father was a 
member, and, in the spring of 1853, was ordained 
as an evangelist by the same Presbytery. 

Upon leaving the Theological Seminary, he 
was invited to Louisville, Kentucky, to supply 



84 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



for a season the pulpit of the Rev. William L. 
Breckinridge, D. D., then pastor of the First 
Church. Respecting this relation, Dr. Breckin- 
ridge says : " I cannot forget that my intercourse 
with him was very pleasant in all respects, and 
entirely satisfactory to me; and that from first to 
last, he made a decided impression on us all as a 
young minister of unusual promise every way." 

While some of the people of Louisville were 
contemplating a new church organization, and the 
building of a Presbyterian house of worship, with 
a view to his permanent settlement among them, 
he received a call from the Third Church, Tren- 
ton, made vacant by the resignation of the Rev. 
Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D. This call he accepted, 
and was installed pastor, November 3, 1853. 
Here he continued in the active duties of the 
ministry, preaching, with great acceptance, to a 
warmly attached people until some time in the 
year 1857. Probably from overaction of the 
brain, in a physical frame, never robust, his ner- 
vous system became prostrated, and he lost almost 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, JR. 85 



entirely the use of his lower limbs. It was grati- 
fying to see that, trying and painful as his disease 
was, he retained the full use of his mental facul- 
ties, and was enabled to "possess his soul in pa- 
tience." For months he and his people cherished 
the hope of his recovery, and no skill or means 
which gave a reasonable promise of effecting a 
cure, were by them untried. When the issue of 
his case became more doubtful, he finally signified 
his purpose to the Session and the Congregation, 
and upon application to the Presbytery of New 
Brunswick, the pastoral relation was dissolved 
February 3, 1859. The assiduous attention -to 
their afflicted pastor and the promptness with 
which all his wants were anticipated by the peo- 
ple .of the Third Church, and the substantial 
sympathy of other Presbyterians in Trenton, espe- 
cially those of the First Church (Dr. Hall's) are 
worthy of commemoration. God will surely re- 
ward such a generous Christian people for their 
unremitting kindness to his suffering young ser- 
vant. The Saviour has said: "Inasmuch as ye 

8 



8 8 KIRK PA THICK MEMORIAL, 

have done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren ye have done it unto nie." jSTot only 
the deed itself is to be commended, but the man- 
ner and spirit with which it was done. 

Here it will be proper to introduce three letters 
of Mr. Kirkpatrick, which illustrate some of the 
admirable excellencies of his Christian character. 
The first is addressed to the Session of the Third 
Church, Trenton, and is dated, 

''Trenton, December 31, 1857. 
"Dear Brethren: — From the commence- 
ment of my illness I have been constantly cherish- 
ing the hope of being able in a few months, to 
resume my ministerial work; but have at length 
been constrained to abandon it, and therefore it 
becomes my duty at once to resign my pastoral 
charge. The design of this note is to request you 
to call the church and congregation together, at 
an early day, to receive my resignation, and to 
unite with me in petitioning the Presbytery, at 
their next meeting, (in Princeton), to dissolve the 
pastoral relation. 



REV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, JR. 87 



"Making this request imposes upon me the 
necessity of taking leave of you as a Session. In 
doing so, I dare not undertake to express the 
emotions that are excited by the prospect of sepa- 
ration; but while I struggle to suppress these, it 
is with lively pleasure, and with profound respect, 
that I here record my testimony to the prudence, 
fidelity, and brotherly kindness and courtesy which 
have uniformly characterized you in all the trans- 
actions and intercourse of the Session. This cor- 
dial co-operation has been one of the distinct 
sources of great satisfaction which I have enjoyed 
in this pastoral relation. 

"I deem it proper also, in this connection, to 
express my high regard for the memory of our 
departed brother, X. J. Maynard, Esq. May the 
Lord grant to each of us as peaceful a departure, 
when his appointed time shall come. It is my 
earnest prayer that your circle may long be pre- 
served from another breach; that the influences 
of the Holy Spirit may thoroughly qualify you 
for every official duty; that the Lord Jesus may 



88 



KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



be with you at every meeting, and that yon may 
never want the encouragement which is to be 
found in the visible prosperity of the beloved 
church over which you have been called to rule, 

"And now, brethren, I commend you to God, 
and to the word of his grace, which is able to 
build you up, and to give you an inheritance 
among all them which are sanctified . 

"J. KlRKPATRICK, Jr." 

The second letter bears the same date. 

" To the Third Presbyterian Church : — 
I hereby tender to you the resignation of my 
pastoral charge, in so far as I received it from 
you, and request that you will co-operate with me 
in making application to the Presbytery, at their 
next meeting, to dissolve the relation which they 
instituted between us. 

"In the severity of this trial, I esteem it a re- 
lief that I have no occasion to enter into a formal 
vindication of my motives, in order to guard against 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, JR. 89 



the accusations and suspicions which often beset 
those who are exchanging one pastoral charge for 
another. And yet, unnecessary as it may be, I 
cannot refrain from saying that, so far as my 
knowledge extends, there is no situation in life 
for which I would voluntarily have exchanged 
the charge of this beloved church. 

"On the other hand, I may well assign the 
reason why I have withheld this resignation so 
long, although unable to render you any service. 
It is this alone — I have been led to postpone it 
from time to time by the persistent hope of being 
able to resume my work comparatively soon. The 
extinction of that hope has left me no alternative 
but to bring myself to the stern necessity of leav- 
ing you. I beg you to overlook the blank which 
my weakness obliges me to leave here, where you 
might naturally expect an expression of my feel- 
ings, and to pray that I may be enabled to trust 
and adore the mysterious wisdom and sublime 
sovereignty of that Providence which has thwarted 
my hopes and swept my plans into confusion, to 

8 * 



90 



KIBKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



make way for the infinitely better purposes of 
God. 

" Be assured of my exquisite appreciation of the 
confidence with which you first received me, the 
respectful and affectionate treatment which I have 
uniformly enjoyed in the midst of you, the indul- 
gent spirit with which you have borne with my 
frailties and defects, and the noble liberality with 
which you have provided for my personal and 
domestic comfort. 

"While I cannot forget the responsibility 
under which I have often been bowed down to 
the dust, and the inefficiency with which I have 
represented the cause of Christ, yet my mind will 
never recur to my ministry here without filling 
itself with pleasant memories. It is my earnest 
prayer and confident expectation that the Lord 
will send you a far worthier and more efficient 
pastor, and that your beloved church will be 
built up, and strengthened, and purified abun- 
dantly, and always to the glory of the grace of 
God. I leave you with undiminished solicitude 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, JR. 91 



for the spiritual welfare and salvation of every 
individual in the congregation, and must say to 
each once more, i Behold the Lamb of God. 7 
6 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love 
of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost 
be with you all. Amen/ 

" J. Kirkpatrick, Jr." 

" P. S. It is my desire that you will omit the 
customary resolutions of esteem and regret, etc. 
Not because I should for a moment doubt the 
perfect sincerity of what you might see fit to ex- 
press in that form, but for reasons drawn entirely 
from other cases by which the custom is dis- 
honored. I shall be gratified, and shall consider 
myself sufficiently distinguished if you will tacitly 
comply with my request. 

"J. K., Jr." 

The third communication was sent in acknow- 
ledgement of the provision of twelve hundred 
dollars contributed by that people for the support 
of his family. 



92 KIBKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



"Trenton, January Ibth, 1858. 
"To the Third Church and Congrega- 
tion : — I have been informed by one of the elders, 
of the very generous provision which you have 
been pleased to make for the support and comfort 
of my family during the time which it is expected 
will be required for the restoration of my health. 
I seem to be obliged by circumstances to speak 
of myself much more than I desire — indulge me 
thus far. The physical suffering, the tedious con- 
finement, and consequent privations which Provi- 
dence has most righteously imposed upon me, I 
have been enabled to bear with a good degree of 
composure ; under the far heavier trial of resign- 
ing my pastoral charge, and renouncing the hope 
of a happy and useful life in the midst of you, I 
have been enabled to retain my self-possession in 
a considerable measure; but by this expression 
of kind solicitude and sincere affection, with 
which you are pleased to follow me in my de- 
parture, I have been overwhelmed. I take this 
method of assuring you of the grateful love which 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, JR. 93 



I dare not undertake to express personally to 
individuals. 

" My whole heart and soul are filled with the 
fervent prayer that God, in the infinitude of his 
goodness and mercy will return this kindness to 
you a thousand fold in this world, and ten thou- 
sand in the next. Yours, as ever, and for ever. 

" J. KlRKPATRICK, JK." 

" P. S. As I am constrained in a great measure 
to deny myself the pleasure of giving vent to my 
feelings, I reluctantly request that my friends will 
endeavor to treat me as though I were not going 
to leave them soon, without any fear that I will 
misconstrue the seeming unconcern. 

"J. K., Jr." 

Upon the settlement of his successor, he re- 
moved his family from Trenton to reside with an 
elder brother near Bingoes. Here a new trial 
came upon him. That sweet and estimable 
woman, Sarah Catharine Yanliew, to whom he 
had been united in marriage in the spring of 



94 



KfRKPATPJCK MEMORIAL. 



1853, wasted rapidly with disease, and died 
March 20, 1859. Her remains were taken to 
Trenton and laid in the Mercer Cemetery. After 
this, he and his only child, the now motherless 
daughter, were taken to the Parsonage to be 
under the care of his venerated parents and affec- 
tionate sisters. 

In reply to a kind letter of inquiry from the 
Hon. Edward W. Scudder, (now a ruling elder 
in the Third Church,) he speaks in a most touch- 
ing manner of his peculiar trials. 

"Ringoes, April 28th, 1859. 
"Mr. E. W. Scuddee— My dear Sir: You 
know already why I could not answer you 
sooner. The little I can now write you will 
expect to be, I suppose, concerning myself. I 
have no dismal story to tell. I have lost my 
health, my church, my home, and my precious 
wife but not my Saviour. 

" 1 He never takes away our all, 
Himself he gives us still/ 



REV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, JR. 95 



" In all my afflictions I see nothing but the 
glory of God, his majestic sovereignty, infinite 
wisdom, righteousness, and love. In all my 
mourning I am filled with wonder, love and 
praise. All this would be miseiable egotism but 
for one thing — the poor Ego is put to shame — it 
is not i, but the grace of God that is given unto 
me. To Him be all the praise. My health is 
considerably better than during the winter. I 
am stronger and can take a few steps with more 
ease than at any time in sixteen months. I ex- 
pect to go to my father's next week to spend the 
summer if I live. With kindest regards to your 
family, I am yours, sincerely. 

" J. Kirkpatrick, Jr." 

Let the afflicted and bereaved take courage 
when they see the steadfastness and serenity of 
spirit of one placed in such affecting circum- 
stances. Let skepticism retire abashed, if not 
convinced, by such a triumph of divine grace. 
To hear a man whose character from infancy up- 



96 



KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



ward had been without one stain, and whose sin- 
gular devotion to his Master's work was enough 
to cause ordinary men to blush with shame, de- 
claring with the utmost sincerity amid an accumu- 
lation of sorrows that he deserved all that he 
suffered, and that to him there was nothing mys- 
terious in God's trying dispensations towards 
him, must convince the most thoughtless that in 
him there were humility and child-like faith of 
no common grade, and a strength of soul which 
nothing but the power of a gracious God could 
bestow. 

Two weeks before his death he called his aged 
father to his bed-side and said, " Father, I am 
now dying. Up to this hour I thought the Lord 
would raise me up to preach the gospel a little 
longer ; but it is not his will. I desire to preach 
once to the Third Church of Trenton after I am 
dead. Tell them— I mean them all, whether 
now of the Third Church or the Fourth — tell 
them I love them all. I have not ceased to pray 
for them to the latest breath, that they may live 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, JR. 97 



in peace, and that the God of peace may be with 
them. I wish you to see that my body follows 
that of my beloved wife. I desire no eulogy — no 
parade. I have been a great sinner ; ' by the 
grace of God I am what I am.' " On a subsequent 
occasion after his father had laid him in as easy a 
condition as possible, with each arm resting on a 
pillow, being "just on the verge of heaven," he 
said, " Now leave me with my Saviour and 
He will take care of me;" and in that 
peaceful confidence his spirit gently passed away. 

The precious remains were removed from 
Bingoes to Trenton on the 31st of October, under 
the direction of his trusty friend Benjamin S. 
Disbrow, Esqr., and placed in front of the pulpit 
of the Third Church. Here crowds gathered 
around, to take the last look at that countenance 
yet mild, benign and heavenly in death. It was 
an affecting scene. The falling tear, and the 
grief depicted on the faces of all, especially of 
several of the humble poor, manifested the 
sincerity of their attachment, for they " sorrowed 

9 



98 



KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



most of all, that tliey should see his face no 
more/' 

The funeral services were commenced by a 
Voluntary by the choir and the singing of the 
«)19th hymn : " Hear what the voice from heaven 
proclaims/' etc., after which the second chapter of 
the First Epistle to the Thessalonians was read by 
the Rev. A, D. White, then pastor of the Second 
Church. This portion of Scripture contains, as 
was justly stated, a remarkably truthful exhibi- 
tion in almost every particular of the character 
of Mr. Kirkpatrick's ministry. After prayer by 
the Rev. Henry B. Chapin, then pastor of the 
Third Church, the funeral sermon was preached 
by the Rev. John Hall, D. D., pastor of the First 
church from the farewell address of the apostle 
Paul to the church at Ephesns : " And now, be- 
hold I know that ye all, among whom I have 
gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my 
face no more. Wherefore I take you to record 
tli is day that I am pure from the blood of all 
men, for I have not shunned to declare unto you 



REV JACOB KIRKPATRICK, JR. 99 



ail the counsel of God. 7 ' The solemn lessons 
drawn from these words, as connected with the 
example of the deceased in life and in death, will 
not soon be forgotten by any whose privilege it 
was to mingle their tears with that deeply moved 
assembly. 

The discourse was followed by some well-timed 
remarks of the Rev. P. O. Studdiford, D. D., of 
Lambertville, who had known Mr. Kirkpatrick 
from his infancy. The concluding prayer was 
offered by the Eev. Edward D. Yeomans, D. D., 
then pastor of the Fourth Church, and the exer- 
cises closed by singing the 625th hymn, " O for 
the death of those/' etc., and the Benediction. 

The funeral procession then moved to the 
Mercer Cemetery, (the Ruling Elders of the 
Third Church acting as bearers) embracing about 
twenty ministers of the gospel, the elders of the 
churches of Trenton and vicinity with many 
relatives ; and there, agreeably to his dying request, 
he was laid by the side of his wife. The Rev. 
Eli F. Cooley, P. D,, then made a brief address ; 



100 KIEKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



and with the benediction ended one of the most 
touching and instructive funeral services the writer 
has ever attended. 

Our lamented friend was a laborious minister 
of Jesus. This is evident in both the quantity 
and quality of his sermons and other manuscripts. 
With an eye single to his Master's service, his 
work was varied in character according to what, 
in his judgment, the circumstances demanded. 
At one time we find him delivering a well- written 
Temperance Address ; at another an address before 
a society for the promotion of the cause of Minis- 
terial Education; and at another a Lecture of 
much ability on " The Relations of Language to 
History." That he prepared thoroughly for the 
Bible Classes which he heard, is to be seen in the 
pertinent notes he has left behind. In his sermon 
from the words : " Eender therefore unto Csesar 
the things which be Caesar's and unto- God the 
things which be God's," we have a manly, dis- 
criminating and fearless vindication of the right 
and duty of the Ambassador of Christ to press 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, JR. 101 



home upon the consciences of men their obliga- 
tions as citizens notwithstanding the hue and cry 
raised about " political preaching." 

The Rev. Mr. Blackburn has briefly stated in 
the preface some of the impressions received from 
an examination of his manuscript Sermons, and 
having learned much from the former parishioners 
of the Rev. Mr. Kirkpatrick, he has furnished 
me with the following, in reference to him as a 
preacher. 

"He was an Apollos, 'an eloquent man, and 
mighty in the Scriptures. This man was in- 
structed in the way of the Lord; and being 
fervent in spirit, he spake and taught diligently 
the things of the Lord.' But he knew more 
than 6 the baptism of John/ and he needed none 
to take him aside and 6 expound unto him the 
way of God more perfectly.' "With the great 
doctrines and Scriptural statements of redemption 
he was so familiar that, when dealing with these 
high themes, his preparations for the pulpit were 
usually the merest notes, suggestive words and 

9 * 



102 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



phrases. In preaching from his more fully written 
manuscript he gave the people his searching eye, 
and his energetic soul. He poured forth his 
thoughts as a broken cloud pours down the rain. 
Forgetting oratory, he was a true orator ; almost 
negligent of rhetoric as a mere art, he illustrated its 
real power, for he hastily grasped whatever would 
make clearer his subject, and threw it into the 
torrent of his words. Soaring aloft in his thoughts, 
he was still with the people, near to them, and 
coming nearer, that he might send home the 
truth to their hearts. As when on his couch 
suffering, so when in the pulpit preaching, he lost 
sight of himself ; God was all, his glory was the 
absorbing theme. He fixed his eye on sinners, 
and thought how they ' came short of the glory 
of God,' and how blind they were to the ruin be- 
fore them ; the tears gathered as he warned them 
of the 'wrath to come;' the lip quivered as he 
pointed them to the throne of judgment ; the tone 
of his voice softened as he entreated them to ( pre- 
pare to meet their God,' and his whole soul was 



REV. JACOB KIRKPATR1CK, JR. 103 



moved when he told them how God might be 
glorified in their salvation. 

" Unassuming at all times, he stood in the pul- 
pit with 6 much trembling/ But the Divine word 
and grace gave him an unusual ' holy boldness' 
in declaring the whole counsel of God. He spake 
directly to the hearer, aiming at the conscience. 
His eloquence was only a force in using the i ham- 
mer' of the Word. His earnestness made it c sl 
fire' that kindled on the whole soul. His imagi- 
nation, of which he had a true poet's share, was 
but the wing to the arrow of truth. His fine 
command of language was employed to give effect 
to the very words of Scripture, which he quoted 
with, powerful adaptation. His keen perception 
of what lay hidden in a text, and his wonderful 
method of applying it to everybody, enabled him 
to divide unto saints and sinners their portion. 
It was often said that lie applied it so closely and 
universally, that not a soul escaped. He fre- 
quently chose a short interrogative text and made 
it the point of many a sentence, the climax of 



104 KIEKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



many a paragraph, the arrow in many an appeal, 
and caused it to ring again and again in the ear 
of the listener. 

" In preaching theology he avoided the abstract 
method, and applied the great doctrines of the 
gospel, at once, to every class of his hearers, to 
their wants, their sins and their sorrows. He 
sought to convince, persuade and secure a practi- 
cal obedience. Men must know their natures, 
their depravities, their transgressions, and their 
ruinous habits ; therefore he cried aloud and spared 
not. He laid hold of the evils in society, the 
sins of the times, the commercial dishonesties, the 
public vices, and the national iniquities. He was 
a reformer, but his idea of a genuine reformation 
was, first of all, regeneration of the soul and 
sanctification of the life. Nothing short of this 
would prove an eternal benefit. As a specimen 
of the manner in which he dealt with the popular 
sins, a quotation is here made from his sermon on 
Temperance. It was delivered October 29, 1854, 
at a time when the subject was unfortunately en- 



REV JACOB KIRKPATRICK, JR. 105 

tangled with politics. Only the first part of it 
was written in full, and when he was rep'eatedly 
urged to prepare it for the press, he positively de- 
clined. 

" His text was 1 Corinthians vi. 10 : c Nor 
drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God/ 
In order to give it point he cited the whole pas- 
sage : i Know ye not that the unrighteous shall 
not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not de- 
ceived : neither fornicators nor idolaters, nor 
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of them- 
selves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, 
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, 
shall inherit the kingdom of God. ? He then 
said : 

« i Whenever it can be shown to be unjustifi- 
able, or unimportant to preach against idolatry, 
licentiousness, covetousness, and extortion, then, 
but not before, the preacher may be fairly called 
upon to apologize for lifting up the warning voice 
from the pulpit, against intemperance, in the 
name of the Lord. Until public sentiment can 



106 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL-. 



consecrate all the crimes in this disgusting cata- 
logue, and place them all alike beyond the reach 
of denunciation, any objection to a " temperance 
sermon," as such, is sheer prejudice, which no 
man ought to cherish for a moment, and which 
if cherished by any, can hardly be expected to 
silence the admonitions of those who feel that 
they are accountable to God, rather than to men, 
for what they proclaim from the sacred desk. 
Men have often been found who are free to say 
that this is a subject which preachers of the gospel 
ought to let alone ; if the Holy Spirit who 
inspired the Apostles had " let it alone," then we 
might. If it were a mere matter of opinion, or 
of taste, or of worldly policy, then prudence might 
dictate, and conscience might allow, that we should 
let it alone, but how can we, while it is a matter 
involving the everlasting destiny of the souls of 
thousands ? How can we, while the kingdom of 
God is closed, as with walls of adamant, high as 
heaven, against all drunkards ? 

" ' But perhaps every one now present is ready to 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TBICK, JB. 107 



say, I have no objection to a sermon against intem- 
perance ; the Bible plainly condemns it as a damning 
sin, public sentiment universally condemns it as a 
monstrous social and moral evil ; we all abominate 
it as a loathsome degradation of everything that 
is lovely and noble in manhood; preach against it. 
And yet, some may be disposed to add something 
like this, but do not condemn the moderate use of 
intoxicating beverages, and above all things, be- 
ware of politics in the pulpit. Well then, with- 
'out venturing to announce the broad assertion 
that it is a sin, in the sight of God, to drink any 
intoxicating liquor at all, without venturing to 
deny that the pulpit may have been sometimes 
dishonored by a sort of sermon which bore too 
close a resemblance to a political harangue ; on the 
other hand, without undertaking to search for that 
particular degree at which moderation passes into 
excess, and without attempting to ascertain pre- 
cisely how many allusions to human government 
it takes to desecrate a sacred desk, I will take my 
stand this morning, upon the safe, and clear, and 



108 KIRKPATBICK MEMORIAL. 



undisputed ground, where we can all harmoniously 
meet, and there kindly invite your candid atten- 
tion to a discourse upon drunkenness. 

" ' Where, in all the world-wide experience of 
fallen man, where, on all the sin-blighted earth, 
where is to be found a lower form of degrada- 
tion than is embodied in the confirmed drunk- 
ard? 

" ' Look at him as a member of the community ! 
He has forfeited and lost the respect and confi- 
fidence of his former associates, he shrinks from 
the companionship of his own friends, and they 
from his, he is exiled from all the circles of re- 
spectability, and instead of filling his appropriate 
sphere of usefulness, is almost universally re- 
garded as an incumbrance and nuisance. Look 
at him as a father ! Heaping disgrace and wretch- 
edness upon those whom he ought to cherish, and 
protect and ennoble! Look at him as a son! 
Bringing down with sorrow to the grave the gray 
hairs of those whom he ought to honor and com- 
fort, and bless. What object is more pitiable 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, JR. 



109 



than the sufferer and inflicter of so much misery? 
Hear his confessions and lamentations ; not im- 
agined for this occasion, but actually heard from 
lips that were quivering with agony, and vividly 
remembered from an hour of most painful sym- 
pathy. Would it were a fancy sketch ! 

" ' Here it is, all but the emphasis of agonizing 
earnestness, and the tears forced from a fountain 
that had long been supposed to be dry, which ac- 
companied its original utterance ; "lam the most 
miserable wretch that lives j the best years of my 
life are wasted, my mind is enfeebled and ruined, 
my finer feelings are blunted,«my body is the prey 
of relentless disease, all my powers are subjected 
to the brutalizing mastery of the worst and 
mightiest of habits. I have effectually driven from 
me all the confidence even of those who weep for 
me still. I am an outcast, I have nothing left, I 
can regain nothing, I am damned before death ; 
let me alone, let me die and plunge into oblivion." 
Fancy sketch ! it is a reality that has been mul- 
tiplied into millions of dirge-like soliloquies, and 
10 



J 



110 KIRK PATRICK MEMORIAL. 



desperate confessions. Who can withhold his 
deepest, truest pity from the blasted victim of in- 
temperance ? And yet, opposite to unsympathiz- 
ing indifference, there is an extreme no less to be 
deprecated, and that is the indulgence of such a 
sympathy as overlooks or excuses the drunkard's 
sin. Intemperance is not merely a misfortune, it 
is a crime, not a trivial offence either, but a hein- 
ous crime. If it be not within the province of 
Gospel-preaching to oppose it as a gigantic social 
and domestic evil, and the very consummation of 
individual ruin, in a worldly point of view, still, 
it surely is within £he province of gospel-preach- 
ing to denounce it as a monstrous sin against 
God.' 

" His appeal at the close of the sermon to the 
advocates of moderate drinking, exhibiting as it 
does the folly and absurdity of their arguments is 
searching, irresistible, scathing. 

" The outlines of his application indicate the 
power with which he must have brought the sub- 
ject home to young men ; to those who are 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, JR. 



Ill 



afraid to drink at all ; to those who already drink 
frequently ; to parents in regard to their children ; 
to those whose duty it is to make and execute the 
laws, and finally to Christians. 

" The last sermon preached by Mr. Kirkpatrick 
was attended by circumstances that made it 
peculiarly interesting. In his naturally modest 
way he had intimated to a few friends that the 
architectural style of his pulpit was not quite to 
his mind. He did not feel free in it. He wished 
one better adapted to extemporaneous speaking. 
The people at once proposed that a new one should 
be constructed according to his own plan. They 
cheerfully acknowledged his right to a ( sacred 
desk' made to suit himself. He wished also to 
please them. After visiting several churches he 
decided upon the model, and he took a most ac- 
tive interest in superintending its erection. The 
old one must be removed, and the new one 
set up in all its elegance within a week. Satur- 
day came ; the last touch was given to it as the 
day was closing. He entered it, and felt as if he 



112 KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



could stand there and preach with freedom of 
spirit. It could not fail to please, as any one who 
may now occupy it will readily understand. But 
where was his sermon?. He had been making 
the pulpit rather than preparing for preaching in 
it. The pen had laid quiet in his study. It was 
probably not the first time that the manual labor 
of sermonizing had been postponed until the 
hastening hours of Saturday. He often said that 
he could work best when ' driven into a corner.' 
It was now five o'clock in the afternoon, and in 
that new pulpit a new sermon must be preached 
on the morrow. It seems that his mind had not 
been idle. He had probably thought that there 
was danger of attaching too much importance to 
the beautiful structure, and this may have sug- 
gested the text. It was Ecclesiastes i. 2 : ' Vanity 
of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities ; 
all is vanity.' With a pencil he had, doubtless, 
already made a rough outline of what he intended 
to deliver. This we find copied in a rapid hand. 
The next morning, March 15, 1857, he was in his 



REV. JACOB KIRKPA TRICK, JR. 113 



place to declare the message of God. He began 
thus : 

"'Who is this melancholy preacher? Who is 
he that utters this dismal wail of disappointment 
and hopeless want? Who is he that takes such a 
sad and murky view of life? Is he the official 
preacher, the representative of the ministers of the 
gospel as a class ? No ; it is not their duty nor their 
practice to proclaim that " all is vanity ;" this is not 
their message. If any do proclaim it, they tran- 
scend their instructions, they assume the authority 
of self-taught sages or prophets ; or more probably 
they are led astray by an unthinking and inordi- 
nate disdain; by morbid despondency. There is 
an overweening contempt of the world which over- 
looks its real value, and its right and noble uses ; 
this contempt may arise from disappointment and 
border upon despair; or it may arise from a zeal 
which is not according to knowledge and border 
upon fanaticism. Never may this pulpit be 
clouded with the gloom of sueh preaching. Never 

may it be here declared, in direct and final 
10 * 



114 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



earnestness, without due limitation, that all is 
vanity. 

" i It overlooks all that is of value in nature, in 
life, in manhood; it underrates all the royal benefi- 
cence with which the Creator has brightened and 
blessed the world. . . . There is a sense in which "all 
is vanity" and emptiness. To the man who makes 
the world his portion it is empty, because dissevered 
from the eternal source of all good. . . The error of 
the expression, " all is vanity 99 consists in the un- 
warranted scope given to it. . . . The preacher is 
Solomon — inspired fully so that he might faith- 
fully record his own errors, as the Psalmist was 
inspired in recording the fact that " the fool hath 
said in his heart, There is no God." 

" ' The Sermon is his own life, his autobiography, 
his experience in the vain search for happiness in 
mere earthly labors, mirth, enterprises, wealth and 
honors. To him all had been vanity and vexa- 
tion, because he had made them his portion. . . . 
Show that his reign was a period of decline, not 
only to Israel, but to himself individually. . . . 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, JR. 115 



(1.) Apparent worldly prosperity is not always 
really such. . . (2.) If real it is not always last- 
ing. . . (3.) Even if it last through this life, it 
lasts no longer unless it is sanctified by the love 
of God. . . (4.) What is real prosperity ? This 
question is reserved to be answered this afternoon, 
and the answer confirmed by further views of the 
royal preacher/ 

"Perhaps this suggestion, made in his notes, 
was not made in the pulpit. Yet he did not sus- 
pect that he would never give publicly the answer 
to his question. It was evident to his friends that 
he needed rest, and it seems that, at their urgent 
solicitation, he consented to take it, inasmuch as a 
ministerial brother was providentially at hand to 
supply his place in the afternoon. Disease had 
smitten him. He never preached again. With- 
out knowing it he had delivered his last sermon. 
He had not to endure the pang of uttering a pub- * 
lie farewell. Will any say of his ministry, 'all 
is vanity?' Was it nothing but i vexation of 
spirit?' His short, earnest, blessed life answers 



116 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

his last recorded question from the pulpit, 'What 
is prosperity f " 

His solicitude for the welfare of his flock was 
uninterrupted and absorbing; and his yearning 
for the salvation of sinners was, by day and by 
night like a consuming fire in his bones. On one 
of his discourses, which is noted as having been 
preached in the Third Church, are written a few 
words which revealed the inmost heart of this 
devoted pastor: "Traced one conversion to 

THIS SERMON. To GOD BE THE PRAISE." 

The Presbytery of New Brunswick, at their 
next meeting after his death, thus recorded their 
estimate of Mr. Kirkpatrick: "The Presbytery 
would bear testimony to the singleness of heart 
with which he devoted to Christ his superior 
talents and acquirements ; to his fidelity, prudence 
and zeal as an ambassador of Christ ; and to the 
meek, humble, patient, unostentatious, self-sacri- 
ficing, and benevolent spirit by which he endeared 
himself to his brethren in the ministry, and pre- 



REV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, JR. 



117 



sented to the church and the world a bright 
example of Christian excellence." 

A model of sincerity, truthfulness, genuine 
modesty, submission to the will of God, cheerful- 
ness in affliction, disinterested sympathy for others, 
love to the brethren, and burning love to souls for 
Christ's sake — his example was a living gospel, 
for he practiced what he preached. Like David 
Brainard and Henry Martyn, this devoted servant 
of God went up to his reward at the age of thirty- 
one ; but " he being dead yet speaketh," and long 
will it be before the last echoes of that voice affec- 
tionate and earnest in its tones, and tremulous 
with emotion, will have died away from the hearts 
of those to whom he ministered. 

The people of the Third Church joined by 
those of the Fourth, who were once under the 
pastoral care of the Rev. J. Kirkpatrick, Jr., have 
erected a chaste and appropriate monument over 
the remains of this beloved man and his com- 
panion in life, on which are the following inscrip- 
tions : 



KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



IN MEMORY OF 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 
AND MINISTRY OF THE 

REV. JACOB KIRK PAT RICK, JR. 

Born October 6, 1828. 
Died October 27, 1859. 



3?astor of tlie Third. 3?res"by- 
terian. Church, of Trenton, 
from October, 1853 to 
January, 1858. 



This monument was erected as a mark 
of affection by those who enjoyed 
the benefit of his ministry 
in Trenton. 



BEV. JACOB KIBKPA TRICK, JB. 



SARAH C. VAN LIEW, 

WIFE OF 

MEV. JACOB KIMKJPA THICK, JR. 
Born June 14, 1829, 
Died March 20, 1859. 



Bom again A. D. 1848. 
Is not dead but sleepeth. 



SERMONS 

BY 

THE REV. JACOB KIRKPATRICK, JR. 



I. 



GOD'S GIORY IN REDEMPTION.* 

Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. 
Psalm viii. 9. 



E observe that this Psalm commences and 



" ' closes with the same words. But I have 
selected the last verse as the text, intentionally, 
and in preference to the first. Of course, the 
inquiry is awakened, at once, why the last is pre- 
ferred, if they are verbally just alike? In the 
answer to that question lies the very point* to 
which I desire ultimately to guide our minds. 
In order to reach it, it will be necessary to follow 
the writer through the whole Psalm ; and to in- 
clude the whole of it, in a general way, within 
the scope of these remarks, will not involve a 

* Preached before the Presbytery of New Brunswick, January, 
185V. 




123 



124 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



departure from the unity of the text; inasmuch 
as this contains the theme, and therefore may be 
considered as containing the whole substance of 
the Psalm. 

David announces this theme at the beginning; 
then his quickened spirit proceeds to explore the 
depths and heights, the length and breadth of the 
subject; then overawed by its vastness and en- 
raptured by its beauties and sublimities, "he pours 
out the overflowing abundance of his grateful 
praise, in a more fervent and emphatic repetition 
of the theme. Or, considering the Psalm as ad- 
dressed to us, he places before us, first, the casket 
still closed; we admire it for its own matchless 
beauty, and the more we gaze upon it the more 
we admire, and the more we admire it the more 
we feel that there must lie hidden within it jewels 
of unrivalled splendor, and of priceless value; 
then he opens it, and spreads out before us its re- 
splendent treasures ; and when our vague expecta- 
tions have all been lost in the surpassing bril- 
liancy of the display, he replaces them in the 



GOD'S GLORY IN REDEMPTION. 125 

casket/ and while the vision of "what is there still 
lingers in our eyes, he places the whole before us 
again, to be all taken into one conception, and to 
call forth a more intelligent, and proportionally a 
more fervent exclamation of devout gratitude. 
Thus, not only the whole meaning, but the whole 
power and life and ardor of the Psalm are poured 
into these closing words. 

Let us endeavor to see how this force is accu- 
mulated during the progress of the Psalm ; and 
in so doing, may we attain, by the grace of God, 
a livelier sense of our own obligation to magnify 
the name of the Lord, and acquire a truer and 
more ardent spirit of praise, a more cheerful trust 
in God, and a firmer and more energetic purpose 
of consecration to his service. 

The glory — the manifested excellency — of God 
is the subject which David invites us to examine 
with him. 

First, he directs our attention to the material 
universe. Hear his reverential address to Jeho- 
vah. "When I consider thy heavens, the work 
11* 



126 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which 
thou hast ordained; What is man that thou art 
mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou 
visitest him?" A single glance at the starry 
heavens is enough to fill us with wonder, and 
speechless admiration of the glory of God. But 
we are so familiar with the scene that it awakens 
in our breasts, ordinarily no true, much less any 
adequate response. 

Let us, for a moment, with reference to the end 
before us, consider the heavens, the work of God's 
fingers. World beyond world, worlds beyond 
worlds, thousands upon thousands of worlds; 
worlds without number, and worlds without mea- 
sure; worlds at distances from us which confound 
our understandings as easily as our senses, and at 
distances from one another which suffocate the 
imagination; and all, notwithstanding the im- 
mensity of their masses and the vastness and in- 
tricacy of their circuits, all moving perpetually 
with absolute precision. 

How great, how incomprehensible in majesty 



GOUS GLORY IN REDEMPTION. 127 

and wisdom and power must be He who created 
all these things out of nothing; who devised all 
their complicated, yet most harmonious arrange- 
ments, and who hath guided them all in their 
pauseless movements through all the boundless 
labyrinth of intersecting orbits, without a jar 
which even the subtile beams of light could feel ! 
Even with this general view of the heavens, with 
hardly a definite thought of the countless, brilliant 
links of mystery that unite them all in one bound- 
less but harmonious whole, well may we exclaim 
with the Psalmist, "What is man that thou art 
mindful of him?" 

For, let us not fail to observe here, the real 
scope of the comparison. It is not between the 
material creation and man. Man is in fact superior 
to all this. The grandest movement in nature, 
the vast simultaneous movements of all nature, 
are, in themselves, immeasurably beneath a single 
thought of the human mind; and the substantial 
greatness of all worlds, is still a microscopic thing, 
compared with the greatness of a single immortal 



128 KIEKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

soul ; and for enduring value, those worlds, with 
all their wonders of wealth, mocking the wildest 
dreams of fable, when compared with the spirit 
of man, are no more than a shred of an old gar- 
ment taken up by the rag-picker from the street, 
and offered for the power and pride and worship 
of an empire. 

But the contrast is between frail man and the 
Creator of all worlds. The reference to the 
heavens is introduced here chiefly to set this con- 
trast in bolder relief ; and now, the feeble crea- 
ture sinks to an unsounded depth of insignificance, 
while the effulgent glory of God rises up from all 
the earth, like a vast cloud with the sun in its 
bosom, and spreads itself out over the very heights 
of all created being. Let us bow down and say, 
"What is man that thou art mindful of him?" 

In addition to the glory which he has displayed 
in the visible creation, we have now to turn our 
attention to that which he exhibits in this conde- 
scension. Are we arrested for a moment by the 
question, how can condescension be glorious? Is 



GOVS GLORY IN REDEMPTION. 129 



it not rather humiliating? No, never, unless it 
•involves the sacrifice of moral excellency, or moral 
power. It is the transition from a higher to a 
lower moral grade that gives to condescension its 
humiliating sense. If a man comes down from 
some elevated social position, with the attitude 
and smile of benignity, to lift up one whom mis- 
fortune has cast down, or to bind up some broken 
heart with kindly charities, we instinctively feel 
that he merits honour by the act. If the sufferer 
is also morally degraded, our estimate of the mag- 
nanimity of the deed may be lowered ; but if so, 
it is only, in the case of any right-minded man, 
on account of the feeling that the benefactor is 
exposing himself to contamination, and endanger- 
ing the true dignity of his character, or weaken- 
ing the efficiency of his moral influence. 

Apart from these considerations, the condescen- 
sion is really the greater, in proportion as moral 
degradation is lower than social insignificance. 
It is our false pride, perverting our notion of true 
dignity — it is sin, which has so closely associated 



130 



KIRKPATRICK MEMORIAL. 



in our minds the ideas of condescension and de- 
grading humiliation. They are not synonymous; 
they are not necessarily inseparable above the 
region of sin; they are not possibly incompatible. 
There is, then, before us, a reality, and one worthy 
of our contemplation, in the glory manifested in 
the condescension of God. 

There is no reference here to the love which 
prompted it, nor to the administration of mercy, 
which has accompanied it, nor to the magnificent 
results which are to follow it; but our attention 
is now called to the praise-worthiness of this con- 
descension, in itself considered. 

In the simple act of condescension, if we may 
designate it as an act, the being mindful of man, 
the stooping to visit the son of man, in this there 
is a grandeur not only surpassing any that the 
world exhibits, but a grandeur too great for any 
scope which the world presents, and commensurate 
with the distance from heaven to earth, from God 
to man. It is all-worthy of divinity. Yet great 
as this condescension is, low as it comes, it in- 



GOD'S GLORY IN REDEMPTION, 131 



volves no loss of majesty upon the part of God ; 
and in this fact there is a mystery of excellence 
which demands our most reverential praise ; praise 
not only in view of the infinite majesty which he 
retains, but in view of that wondrous fact, that 
his condescension is real, and yet involves no 
sacrifice of his most exalted greatness. In stoop- 
ing to the depraved he gives no countenance to 
sin, and in the midst of a world reeking with cor- 
ruption, the stainless splendor of his purity repels 
every touch of evil, every breath of pollution. 

Now, the more he does for this insignificant 
and unholy creature, man, the more conspicuous 
his condescension, and the greater the glory of it. 
What is it? "For thou hast made him a little 
lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with 
glory and honor. Thou madest him to have 
dominion over the works of thy hands ; thou hast 
put all things under his feet : All sheep and oxen, 
yea, and the beasts of the field; The fowl of the 
air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever pass- 
eth through the paths of the seas." 



132 



KIHKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



But is this true? How, or when, or where, 
has this description ever been realized? True, it 
was realized in paradise; but is the Psalmist's 
design to awaken a cruel, mocking memory of 
excellence and regal authority that have been ir- 
recoverably lost? Xo, but to direct the eager eye 
of faith to the- opening vision of a future state 
like that which seemed to have receded from the 
remotest memory of man still backward into the 
rayless darkness of eternal oblivion. This de- 
scription has been realized again, for the apostle 
Paul so declares in Hebrews: "For unto the 
angels hath he not put in subjection the world to 
come whereof we speak. But one in a certain 
place testified, saying, TTkat is man, that thou art 
mindful of hkn? or the son of man, that thou 
visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower 
than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory 
and honor, and didst set him over the works of 
thy hands; Thou hast put all things in subjection 
under his feet. For in that he put all in subjec- 
tion under hiru, he left nothing that is not put 



GOD'S GLORY IN REDEMPTION. 133 



under him. But now we see not yet all things 
put under him : but we see Jesus, who was made 
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of 
death, crowned with glory and honour; that he 
by the grace of God should taste death for every 
man. For it became him. for whom are all 
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing 
many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of 
their salvation perfect through sufferings. For 
both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sancti- 
fied, are all of one: for which cause he is not 
ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will de- 
clare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst 
of the church will I sing praise unto thee." 

It has been realized in Him who is pre-emi- 
nently the Son of man. In Him we see the per- 
fection of man restored. All who are in Christ 
by faith shall be made like unto Him. This de- 
scription shall again be realized in the race of 
redeemed mankind. We have now to turn our 

attention to the glory of God's condescension as 
12 



134 



KIEKPATBIVK MEMORIAL, 



exhibited in this exaltation of man. Let us be- 
hold it; 

I. In the means of his exaltation. All these 
are such as to make the most marvellous display 
of his excellency. The gift of his only-begotten 
and well-beloved Son is the infinite munificence 
of infinite love. The person and character of 
Christ constitute the brightest and clearest reve- 
lation of himself. The life of Christ culminating 
upon the Mount of Transfiguration, exhibits the 
perfection of heaven, unstained by the world of 
pollution, untarnished by the hot, fetid breath of 
the world's fiery passions, and undimmed by 
earthly darkness. While the self-sacrifice of 
Christ pours into the ocean of divine love another 
ocean of divine love till it overflows the world, 
it exhibits in the clearest possible light the jus- 
tice and the holiness of God, and irradiates the 
earth with the beams of infinite mercy. And 
while the sacrifice of Christ exhibits the infinite 
holiness of God in an abhorrence of sin, the con- 
verting and sanctifying influences of the Holy 



GOD'S GLORY IN REDEMPTION. 135 



Spirit, which were procured by that sacrifice, 
transforming man into the image of God, exhibit 
the same holiness in its sublime out-going after 
the fellowship of holiness. 

II. This brings us to behold the glory of God 
as exhibited in the exalted man. The means just 
alluded to, derive their chief excellency from the 
motives which originated them, and from the end 
to which they are directed. "God so loved the 
world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him might not perish but , 
have everlasting life." This it is that makes the 
gift of Christ an exhibition of the divine glory ; 
and the life of Christ assumes its loftiest character 
only when we regard it as the example for man 
to imitate, and the character for man to attain. 
The secret of its highest excellency is in these 
words, "Be ye perfect, for I am perfect." The 
death of Christ assumes its loftiest character only 
when we regard it as procuring not only the jus- 
tification of man but also the descent of the Holy 
Spirit to aid him in the imitation of that exam- 



136 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



pie, and to transform him into that likeness* 
Thus all these means are to be viewed in imme- 
diate connection with the end to be accomplished, 
which is the complete redemption of man. So, 
this end accomplished is the highest display of 
the glory of God, yea this end accomplished takes 
up into itself every subordinate manifestation of 
his excellency. 

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
firmament showeth his handiwork unto man. 
The material world is designed for his uses. The 
condescension of the great Creator is toward him 
and for him. The means of redemption are 
adapted and appropriated to him. The end of 
all is his restoration to the image of God, and 
exaltation to his presence; and when Christ in 
his glorified humanity shall stand before the 
eternal throne with all his ransomed people, and 
say, " Here am I and the children whom thou 
hast given me/' then God will breathe his fiat 
of destruction upon the material world, and waft 
it away upon the wings of devouring fire, and 



GOB'S GLORY IN REDEMPTION. 137 

then will lie gather the rays of his glory, which 
have been dispersed through the world, all toge- 
ther again to irradiate and emblazon the eternal 
home of himself and his people. 

In view of this whole process, and in view of 
its consummation in heaven, how can we fail to 
exclaim with the emphasis of ecstatic adoration, 
"O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name 
in all the earth !" 

But alas ! there are many who cannot join in 
this exclamation because they have no true appre- 
ciation of all this manifested excellency of God. 
They have no well-founded hope of being raised 
to this blissful height. There may be some such 
here. Can you, my friend, say with the people 
of God, "O Lord, how excellent is thy name?" 

Can you compass the visible creation in your 

view, and with a spiritual apprehension of the 

glory which it displays, and with the tranquillizing 

conviction that the same wisdom and power and 

goodness, which gleam forth throughout the scene, 

are engaged in your behalf, can you take up the 
12 * 



138 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



theme and ascribe all this excellence to our 
Lord? 

Can you clasp the gospel to your heart, — can 
you go up high upon the Pisgah of faith, and 
catch the truant gleams of celestial light, and the 
truant whispers of celestial harmony and say, 
" O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name ?" 

O my brethren in the ministry, let us be duly 
affected by the -condition of the unbelieving ! We 
know that it is only through the enlightening in- 
fluences of the Holy Spirit that they can ever see, 
and though inadequately, yet truly appreciate 
this accumulated glory of God. We know that 
it is only by a living union with Christ, the Son 
of Man, only by this living union through faith 
in his blood, that they can ever realize in them- 
selves this description of the Psalmist, this divine 
theory of redemption, this central promise of the 
gospel, this only hope of immortality. If they 
continue in unbelief, what will be their ultimate 
condition as seen in the light of this subject ? 

All these displays of divine glory will be lost 



GOD'S GLORY IN REDEMPTION. {S9 

upon them. If the legitimate end and consum- 
mation of all is man's complete redemption, 
then, — not upon the part of God, indeed, but 
upon their part, this whole scheme and process 
of creation and redemption, will have been a 
total, ruinous failure. And though this enor- 
mous, incalculable loss may be unappreciated, 
unfelt as yet, still it will be found in the end to 
constitute a terrible doom. For when God shall 
have gathered all these scattered beams of his 
glory together in the home of his people, they 
will be left in outer darkness. The world lost, 
on the one hand, heaven lost on the other ; the 
world wasted, heaven rejected, and themselves 
lost in eternal blank despair. Whatever may be 
meant by the fire that is not quenched, and the 
worm that never dies, is there not enough in this 
everlasting failure and destitution ; in the full con- 
sciousness of this loss; in this blackness of dark- 
ness, this abandonment, this eternal emptiness, 
and caSt-off worthlessness, this wild conflict be- 
tween exasperated memories and relentless de- 



140 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



spair, is there not enough in these to move our 
deepest sympathies? Let us be moved by the 
greatness of their uncertain unsettled destiny. 
Let us "preach the word, be instant in season, 
out of season," let us urge them, with all the ear- 
nestness of which we are capable, to flee to Christ, 
and by a living faith in him, to rise up in new- 
ness of life, into the full eternal glory of God's 
completed redemption. 



4T 



II. 

MOTIVES TO EFFORT. 

Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the 
error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a 
multitude of sins. James v. 20. 

npHESE words refer directly to the case of an 
apostate professor of religion. This is mani- 
fest from its connection with the preceding verse; 
"Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth." 
Nevertheless, it includes the case of every unbe- 
liever who has never become united with the 
brethren in Christian fellowship. The fallen 
professor, and the avowedly unconverted man are 
alike in all the particulars here mentioned ; both 
have need to be converted, both have a multitude 
of sins exposed to the view of divine justice, and 
both are' on the way to death. In our medita- 
tions upon these words, therefore, we may leave 

141 



142 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



such distinctions entirely out of view, and allow 
our minds to turn to any case that comes within 
the scope of these general terms, "Let any one 
know that he who converteth a sinner from the 
error of his way, shall save a soul from death, 
and shall hide a multitude of sins." 

This is not a mere item of information, as the 
form of the expression seems to indicate. It is, 
in reality, the offer of a reward as an incitement 
to the performance of a good work. The future 
and complete recompense is not, indeed, men- 
tioned ; there is no definite allusion, even, to the 
promise that " they who turn many to righteous- 
ness shall shine as stars in the firmament for- 
ever;" but it is tacitly assumed that the con- 
sciousness of doing good is in itself a great 
reward, and to the right-minded, a sufficient 
inducement. Such it ought to be and such it is 
to those whose motives are entirely incorrupted. 
It is not, by any means, intended that we are not 
to look for any additional positive recompense, 
nor that the uncontaminated desire of being 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT. 



143 



useful is absolutely the only thing which should 
prompt us to good works. The Scriptures plainly 
recognize the correctness of other motives, and 
actually appeal to them, when they attach a pro- 
mise of blessing to any of the divine requirements. 
For example, when it is said that "the liberal 
soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth 
shall be watered also himself," it is directly im- 
plied that, in the exercise of beneficence, we may 
properly be influenced, in some measure, by the 
desire of prosperity. And so, all the conditional 
promises of the word of God, involve the conces- 
sion that the hope of future reward may combine 
with a sense of duty to determine and regulate 
our conduct. 

But here two qualifying remarks are demanded. 
The first is, that a sense of duty ought to be, of 
itself, sufficient to keep us constantly in the ser- 
vice of God. The other is that, apart from any 
other consideration of advantage, the conscious- 
ness of being useful is, in itself, a reward adequate 
to any effort, or to any sacrifice. He, who does a 



144 



KIRRPATRICK MEMORIAL. 



good deed under the influence of unhallowed am- 
bition, will not be content until the fame of the 
act shall have been sounded abroad ; lie will ex- 
pect his compensation in the applause of men, 
and will consider himself virtually a loser, until 
that applause shall have actually begun to delight 
his vanity. He, who performs a good deed merely 
for the sake of personal aggrandizement, in some 
form or other, will chide himself for the risk 
until he attains his object, and even then, in all 
probability, he will be disappointed in its value, 
for sheer selfishness is too mean to enjoy what it 
has, or what it seizes. But he, who does a good 
work with a right spirit, although no one should 
have an opportunity to praise him for it ; although 
his left hand should not know what his right 
hand has done, and long before the final plaudit 
and reward come to greet him; in the very per- 
formance of the deed, and afterward in view of 
its happy results, will find ample compensation 
in the unspoken consciousness of being useful. 
It will not be in the proud and self-complacent 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT. 



145 



reflection that he has been able to lay some insig- 
nificant sufferer, or poor dependent fellow-creature 
under lasting obligation, and has merited all 
heaven ; but it will consist in the benevolent and 
humble reflection that he has done good, and has 
been enabled to please his heavenly Father. 
This is genuine enjoyment; this is one great 
reason why "it is more blessed to give than to 
receive." Thj^ is a worthy, and when rightly 
viewed, a very strong inducement to exertion and 
self-denial, and accordingly the Apostle says not, 
he that converteth the sinner from the error of 
his way shall be the object of special favor, or 
shall be the more abundantly blessed hereafter, — 
but, " Let him know" that he is thereby accom- 
plishing great and lasting good. 

It is also implied in the text, that the real 
gratification springing out of the conviction of 
having been useful, will be graduated according 
to the amount of good which one has been instru- 
mental in accomplishing. If a man, from purely 
benevolent motives, should perform merely an 

13 



146 KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



ordinary act of neighborly accommodation for 
another, he would find comparatively little plea- 
sure, however real it might be, in the conscious- 
ness of having conferred the favor. If he should 
relieve some groaning sufferer from his distress, 
his inward compensation would be proportionally 
greater; and if he should afterwards learn that 
by that act of kindness he had not only relieved 
the individual sufferer, but filled the bosom of his 
family with joy, surely his inward compensation 
would be not a little enhanced; and if, in after 
time, he should ascertain, that by his timely in- 
terposition he had rescued the sufferer from de- 
spair and from consequent suicide, and had turned 
him, with his energies revived, and his lost hopes 
restored, into the path of honest prosperity, along 
which he had gathered up a fortune for himself 
and for the charitable uses of a grateful and 
generous heart, he would feel still more lavishly 
repaid by the reflection that he had done the deed 
of kindness years before. And this idea, of a 
sort of proportion between the satisfaction of 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT. 



147 



doing good and the magnitude of the results ac- 
complished, seems to have been in the mind of 
the apostle James when he penned the words of 
the text. 

What an inducement to seek the conversion of 
others is here presented ! He who instrumentally 
converts a sinner from the error of his way, hides 
a multitude of sins. Not his own sins ; apparent 
devotion to the service of God, efforts for the con- 
version of sinners, may, indeed, blind some human 
eyes, for awhile, to many of the faults and sins 
of him by whom those efforts are put forth. 
These efforts, especially if they are successful, 
being deemed of themselves satisfactory evidence 
of his sincerity and pious zeal, may serve to avert 
from him the scrutiny of many. They may lead 
others to look upon him with the illuded eye of 
partiality, and thus indirectly hide many of his 
sins from human view. But this falls far below 
the meaning of the apostle. And no endeavors 
to do good, even to lead men to the knowledge of 
the truth, whatever be the motive, can hide any of 



148 KIRKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



our sins, not even the least, directly or indirectly, 
from the inevitable and impartial view of God. 
He does not overlook the sins of the best of men, 
for the sake of what they do, although in labors 
and success they be "not behind the very chief 
of the Apostles," for after they have done all they 
have reason to own "we are unprofitable servants.' 7 
Not only are the impenitent unable to merit for- 
giveness or indulgence, but the regenerated, even 
the most pious among them, are equally unable, 
for they are still constrained to acknowledge " by 
the grace of God I am what I am;" and when 
all their labors and successes are wrought together 
into one broad mantle of righteousness, the whole 
of it is the workmanship of the gracious strength 
of God working in them, and cannot be stretched 
over their positive obligations, much less can it 
be drawn beyond them, and made to cover the 
least of their transgressions or faults. Nay, more, 
a man may preach to others and yet be himself a 
cast-a-way; this possibility, this danger, even 
Paul did not fail to recognize with humility and 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT 



149 



fear. Nay, nay, no man can hide his own^ sins 
from God, in any sense of the word, even by con- 
verting sinners. 

But still he "shall hide a multitude of sins," 
the sins of that man whom he is instrumental in 
leading to the Lamb of God. When a man who 
is hurrying onward, impelled by the restless pas- 
sions of a depraved nature, and by the stimulants 
of manifold temptations, in a career of wicked- 
ness, strengthening his habits, and hardening his 
heart, and acquiring more and more unholy skill 
by the practice of iniquity, and enlarging his 
plans of evil-doing, when such a man is merci- 
fully arrested, and transformed by the regenerating 
power of God, what a multitude of sins is thus 
prevented! Such was his sinful disposition, by 
nature; such was the fixedness of his character; 
such his purposes of continued impenitency and 
disobedience ; such was the moral certainty that, 
if he lived on unconverted, his future experience 
would be essentially a repetition of the past, and 

that he would commit a multitude of sins, that 
13 * 



150 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



those* sins may be said to have had an existence 
already ; an existence in his imaginations, and lia- 
bilities, and designs, and plans, a germinal exist- 
ence in his carnal disposition ; and consequently 
they may be said to have been hidden by his con- 
version, covered up, confined to their secrecy, de- 
stroyed before they came to the light. Is not this 
• 

an object worthy of our diligent instrumentality 2 n 
Take the case of any unconverted individual to 
whom your mind reverts; how many more sins 
he is likely yet to commit, how many more he 
will yet commit, if the forbearance of God spare 
his life, and he continue in unbelief! how his 
guilt will increase, his liability to deeper and 
deeper woe ! And as his sins are multiplied, as 
he grows old in sin, how the likelihood of his 
conversion in all human probability will diminish ! 
His sins are rapidly increasing, and is not that 
fact, in all its aspects and bearings, enough to 
urge you mightily to seek his conversion earnestly 
at once, and thus throw a veil over the future de- 
velopments of his unregenerate disposition ? Thus, 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT. 



151 



on a larger scale, what great multitudes of sins 
will yet be committed by the unconverted round 
about us, if they be not speedily turned unto 
God. And if the multiplication of crimes, the 
prevalence of iniquity is "an evil and a bitter 
thing," fatal in its ultimate results, full of dire 
contagion, and detrimental to all the interests of 
mankind, how anxious and earnest should we be 
to convert men from darkness to light, and thus 
hide a multitude of sins, confining them forever 
in their embryonic secrecy. 

The expression we are now considering includes 
much more than the idea which has just been 
suggested. To hide sins, or to cover sins, in 
Scripture phraseology, is upon the part of God to 
remove them from the view of his vindictive jus- 
tice. It is to overlook them, to forgive them; 
and in the case before us, instrumentally to pro- 
cure their pardon. "God is angry with the 
wicked every day." He looks constantly upon 
their sins with holy indignation. No plea modi- 
fies their hateful aspect ; no excuse intercepts his 



152 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



view. O, it is a fearful thing to be thus exposed 
to the searching gaze of the offended God, as the 
unbeliever is. There is no concealment for him, 
in his sinful state. If he ascend up into heaven, 
God is there ; if he make his bed in hell, God is 
there; if he take the wings of the morning and 
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, behold! 
the Omnipresent is there; and wherever he goes 
the same retributive justice frowns upon his sins. 
O the misery, the danger of such an exposure! 
Those sins are odious in the sight of God, They 
are objects of abhorrence; yea, more, they are 
provocations of his wrath ; they cry unto him like 
the blood of Abel, and if they continue thus in 
full view, like so many challenges of his justice, 
the unmitigated penalty of the righteous law must 
descend upon the transgressor. How shall he 
escape? So long as Jehovah looks upon those 
sins, there is no escape for him. O, that those 
sins were hidden! Then he might be relieved 
from the peace-destroying consciousness that the 
eye of the Lord is upon him for evil. Then he 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT. 



153 



might draw near to God without dread, in close 
and holy fellowship. Then his heart might be 
filled with that peace which passeth understand- 
ing; a tranquillizing and delightful sense of that 
favor which is life and that loving-kindness which 
is better than life. O that those sins were hid- 
den! Then God would regard him differently. 
He would look upon him with complacency. 
Now his wrath abideth upon him, but then he 
would treat him as righteous, and admit him to 
all the privileges and joys of sonship. Fellow- 
Christians, you know much, and can imagine 
much more of the blessedness of that man whose 
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 
How many dangers would be averted, and how 
much felicity secured, in the case supposed, if 
those sins were only hidden ! But how can they 
be? If he say surely the darkness shall cover 
me, the darkness and the light are both alike to 
God. No earthly veil is thick enough, no earthly 
retreat is secret enough, no earthly night is dark 
enough. But let it be known that he who con- 



154 



KIRK PA THICK MEMORIAL. 



verteth him from the error of his way shall hide 
effectually the multitude of his sins. He shall 
lead him to appropriate, by faith, the righteous- 
ness of Christ, which will cover them all for ever 
from the view of retributive justice. How low 
an estimate should we place upon our solicitude, 
and pains-taking, and self-denial, if it be requi- 
site, in comparison with such a result ! 

Nor is this, by any means, the whole of the 
result to be accomplished; he "shall save a soul 
from death" To save a man's body from death, 
when it is imminently threatened, by casualty or 
disease, is deemed a great achievement. How 
much greater to save a soul from death ! What 
is the mortal body compared with the soul? and 
even in an extreme case, the body is saved from 
death only for a little while, for soon will come 
the crisis in which no human power or skill can 
baffle the all-conquering destroyer. But the soul 
once saved is saved for ever; "on such the second 
death hath no power." To save a mind from 
ignorance, by conferring upon it the benefits of 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT 



155 



education, is a noble work; to save a heart from 
grief by preventing calamity, or affording conso- 
lation is an invaluable favor; but what are these 
things compared with saving a soul from death? 
Many of you, doubtless, have read or heard some 
account of that remarkable case of education 
which occurred some time ago, in one of our 
cities. There was a poor, idiotic boy, whose case 
was deemed hopeless even by his parents, who 
might have been expected to hope against hope; 
he was deformed, helpless, apparently without 
ideas, without emotions, and almost without a 
spark of reason; but through the kindness, and 
wise judgment, and marvellous patience, and per- 
severing labors of a philanthropic gentleman, he 
was gradually raised to a considerable degree of 
mental vigor and intelligence. Who does not 
recognize in that a grand achievement, to save a 
soul from blank idiotcy, and elevate it almost to 
the ordinary standard of intelligence? 

But what is that even compared with saving a 
soul from death ? Estimate if you can the value 



156 



KIRK PA THICK MEMORIAL. 



of the soul ; you might as well attempt to count 
the grains of sand upon the sea-shore. Consider 
what it is saved from ; our worst conception of 
physical death is almost without significancy here. 
That death from which the ransomed soul is 
saved is horrible in proportion to the noble nature 
of the soul, and as lingering as immortality is 
lasting. Consider too, that when the soul is 
saved from death that is not all. It is exalted to 
the beatific presence of God, and filled full of the 
rapture of everlasting life. 

How can we be so indifferent about the con- 
version of men, or do so little to secure it, when 
we know that he who converteth the sinner from 
the error of his way shall save a soul from death? 
Is not this a motive sufficient to thrust us out of 
our slothfulness, to awaken our deepest sympa- 
thies, and incite us to the eager seizure and dili- 
gent improvement of every opportunity of effecting 
or contributing towards the conversion of our 
fellow-men? And when the souls of those we 
love are in question how much stronger the in- 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT, 157 

ducement to pray and labor for their conversion. 
Let parents look upon their unregenerate chil- 
dren, and children upon their unregenerate 
parents ; let brothers look upon their unbelieving 
sisters, and sisters upon their unbelieving brothers, 
and let them know, and let them meditate upon 
it, that he who converteth a sinner from the error 
of his way shall save a soul from death. 

We are not left to be moved merely by the 
exceeding desirableness and importance of the 
conversion of our fellow-men, considered with 
reference to their own interests, and to our sym- 
pathies and affections. We are plied here, also, 
by the offer of a great reward. , If we are instru- 
mental in converting any from the error of his 
way, not only will the results be such as have 
been alluded to, but we have the happiness of 
knowing it. How great is that happiness, even 
here, disturbed as it often is by uncertainty about 
the genuineness of conversion, and limited as it 
is by our imperfect knowledge of its glorious 
results ! How that happiness will be enhanced 

14 



158 



KIEKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



hereafter, when we come to view those results in 
the light of eternity ! When we come to rejoice 
in perfect purity, and behold the glories of a 
peopled world all without a stain, then we shall 
know more truly what it is to hide a multitude 
of sins. When we come to estimate the soul 
according to the standard employed in heaven, 
by Him who sacrificed himself to save it, and by 
the angels who minister to the heirs of salvation, 
and when we come to exult, by the grace of God, 
in the safety and ecstacy of immortal life, then we 
shall know more truly what it is to save a soul 
from death. And then, with our enlarged know- 
ledge of these things, what, think you, will it be 
worth to reflect that we have been instrumental 
in converting some sinners from the error of their 
ways ? Even if it does now require some effort 
and self-denial to gain such a result, what then 
will those things be in our estimation ? . . . . 

Suppose we should meet in heaven some soul 
converted through our instrumentality ! . . . . 

Though not mentioned here, yet it is distinctly 



MOTIVES TO EFFORT. 159 

revealed elsewhere, and is not to be overlooked 
in our meditations upon this subject, that spe- 
cial rewards will be bestowed hereafter, upon spe- 
cial efforts 



III. 

OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 

"And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone." 
1 Kings xx. 40. 

TX order to ascertain the significancy of these 
words, and to make a legitimate and proper 
use of them, let us trace the tenor of the narra- 
tive in which we find them. Benhadad, the 
King of Syria, gathered all his host together, and 
with the aid of thirty and two kings, or princes 
of the neighboring countries, who were probably 
his allies or vassals, " went up and besieged Sa- 
maria, and warred against it." After some mes- 
sages had passed between him and Ahab, the 
King of Israel ; boasting and insolent upon the 
part of Benhadad; pusillanimous and fickle ,at 
first, but finally decided upon the part of Ahab, 
the battle commenced. Although the Syrians 

160 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 



161 



had a vast advantage in numbers and strength, 
yet by the miraculous interposition of the Lord 
of Hosts, they were defeated with, enormous 
slaughter. The king, however, escaped alive. 
His servants, attributing the victory of the Israel- 
ites to the fact that their gods were gods of the 
hills, and convincing him that he could overcome 
them upon the plains induced him to reorganize 
his army, and renew the war at the return of the 
year. But with all the advantages of their posi- 
tion, upon which they placed so much reliance, 
they were utterly discomfited before the little 
band of God's chosen people, and Benhadad him- 
self sought refuge in an inner chamber in the city 
of Aphek. Yielding again to the urgent advice 
of his servants, he suffered them to go to Ahab, 
wearing the emblems of deep mourning and hum- 
ble submission, to implore his clemency. This 
wicked king, contrary to the instructions of the 
Lord's special prophet, showed favor to the 
enemy of God's people, made a disadvantageous 
covenant with him, and sent him away. For this 

14* 



162 KIBKPAT1UCK MEMORIAL, 



he was reproved by one of the prophets in the 
parable which follows : " And a certain man of 
the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbor 
in the word of the Lord, Smite me, I pray thee. 
And the man refused to smite him. Then said 
he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the 
voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art 
departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And 
as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found 
him, and slew him. Then he found another man, 
and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man 
smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him. 
So the prophet departed, and waited for the king 
by the way, and disguised himself with ashes 
upon his face. And as the king passed by, he 
cried unto the king : and he said, Thy servant 
went out into the midst of the battle ; and behold, 
a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, 
and said, Keep this man : if by any means he be 
missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else 
thou shalt pay a talent of silver. And as thy ser- 
vant was busy here and there, he was gone. And 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 



163 



the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy 
judgment be; thyself hast decided it. And he 
hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; 
and the king of Israel discerned him that he wag 
of the prophets. And he said unto him, Thus 
saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of 
thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter de- 
struction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, 
and thy people for his people." 

The main features of this whole narrative, as 
you will readily perceive, are these; God had 
committed to Ahab an important trust. He had 
proved recreant to the obligation, the opportunity 
of discharging it had passed, and the forfeit was 
to be paid. He perceived, and by his immediate 
sadness and displeasure acknowledged the appli- 
cation of the parable to himself. He felt the in- 
evitable closeness of that application far more 
severely afterward, no doubt, when the forfeit of 
his life was demanded and obtained in the car- 
nage of unsuccessful war. 

And now, my friends, does it not become us to 



164 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



inquire whether this reproof may not have some 
application to ourselves ? As Ahab was acting in 
an official capacity and in a matter involving the 
welfare of Israel, the closest analogy is to be 
found in the administration of justice, and the 
control of national interests. God has committed 
to American rulers and American people a most 
important and sacred trust, even the guardianship 
of the rights, the safety, the altars, the homes, 
the character, the true welfare, the highest and 
dearest interests of a great Christian nation. The 
enemies to be repelled and utterly overthrown 
are many and dangerous, — they are not only the 
Benhadads of foreign dominion, but more espe- 
cially such as these, ignorance, crime, insubordi- 
nation, fanaticism. If intelligence be not widely 
diffused ; if the benefits of education be not libe- 
rally disseminated; if men do not contend ear- 
nestly for the faith once delivered to the saints ; 
if laws be not made, or when made, be not en- 
forced, against those who, fearing not God, neither 
regarding man, would make the Sabbath a day of 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 



165 



business in our streets; if the tables of these 
money-changers in the temple of God be not over- 
thrown ; if the distinct and special laws of God, 
even though they require the shedding of blood, 
be modified by the morbid sympathies of a false 
philanthropy; if justice be not dispensed to the 
guilty as well as the innocent; if we enter into 
a covenant with our enemies, who have been 
appointed to destruction by God himself, upon 
any such dishonorable and ruinous terms, they 
will insidiously gather strength and triumph over 
us. Ignorance will stalk abroad with instru- 
ments of cruelty putting out the very eyes of men 
for whom God has prepared bright visions of 
truth ; fanaticism, crime and anarchy will follow 
on, like hundred-handed monsters, to complete 
the ruin, and at last, the only account we can 
give of that prosperity which has been entrusted 
to us, will be in words like these, "As thy ser- 
vants were busy here and there, it was gone." 

This national field of observation is so vast, 
and the objects it presents are so many and va- 



166 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



rious that it is difficult, at least in a brief view, 
to keep their impressions distinct, — the responsi- 
bility is shared by so many that admonitions seem 
to lose their power. But there are narrower ap- 
plications of these words in which each of us may 
feel a more definite, individual interest. For 
example, there have been entrusted to us oppor- 
tunities of usefulness. First, to those over whom 
we can exert an immediate influence. If you are 
a parent, the spiritual welfare of your child has 
been, in a large measure, committed to you as a 
most precious trust. Fearful dangers surround 
, him. Cunning and malignant enemies lie in wait 
for him. His liabilities to ruin are such as are 
devised by the great adversary of souls. They 
are such as the hazards of the world's great bat- 
tle-strife • such as the strong, evil propensities of 
an apostate nature. Here, moreover, are the un- 
numbered temptations peculiar to large towns 
and cities ; those insidious temptations that have 
marred so many fair characters, drowned with 
their syren music the warning voices of so many 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 



167 



consciences, unbound so many resolutions, made 
so many outcasts, blighted so many hopes, 
crushed so many joys, broken so many hearts, 
eternally ruined so many souls. If you leave 
your children unnecessarily exposed to these temp- 
tations ; if you do not exercise a watchful Chris- 
tian guardianship over them ; if you neglect their 
religious instruction ; if you neglect to take them 
with you to the throne of grace and commend 
them to the omniscient guardian of spirits ; if you 
do not endeavor to warn them of their danger, 
and lead them to the Lamb of God, the time may 
come when the only account you can give of them 
will be in such mournful words as these: "As 
thy servant was busy here and there he was 
gone." 

How many are there who could not subscribe 
to some such narrative as this? I knew a father 
and mother to whom was committed the responsi- 
bility of training up a son for life-long, extended 
usefulness and a blessed immortality. Parental 
indulgence eagerly gratified all the changing de- 



168 KIR KPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



sires of his childhood, and lavished upon him 
caresses of fondness, and smiles of pride. It 
carefully supplied all his wants, except the most 
urgent of all, the wants of his moral nature. 
Unhappily free from restraint, he followed his 
own inclinations; frequently, in their dangerous 
tendency to evil, they directed his rambles to the 
places where idlers resort, or to scenes of wicked 
amusement. He caught the phrases of profanity 
as they floated along the street. He loitered 
around those places where scenes of iniquity are 
partially concealed by suspicious-looking curtains ; 
where the ribald jest and the loud laugh, and the 
rattling of dice may be heard mingling together. 
He went with the multitude to do evil. The 
temptations became stronger and more numerous 
as he grew older. In his gaily painted boat he 
glided at first, at a distance, and as he thought 
safely, around the whirlpool, listening to ~~the far- 
off roar and watching the sunlight as it danced 
upon the foam; then, gradually he drew nearer 
to trace the bright pathway of the outer circle, 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 



169 



and then he followed circle after circle as they 
became narrower and narrower ; faster and faster 
flew his fragile bark, and intoxicated by the ex- 
citement of the whirl and the roar of the dashing 
current, he threw down his useless oars, and sent 
up through the sparkling spray loud and louder 
laughs of recklessness, until in the very midst of 
his hilarity he was caught by the maniac waters 
and hurled into the boiling vortex; and as his 
parents were " busy here and there, he was gone." 

In ten thousand such narratives the blanks 
might be filled up with names that are seldom 
mentioned, and then always with a sigh; names 
that lie in some memories like pieces of ice upon 
the wrist. O ye who are parents, beware lest 
through your inadvertence or neglect your sons 
should be snatched away as so many have been, 
and you be left to make the sad acknowledgment 
of the text. How often in a city, at the corners 
of the streets is the attention called to the fact 
that while some parents or servants have been 
busy here and there a child has been lost? What 

15 



170 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



would be your feelings, think you, if your child 
should be thus lost, and search should be made in 
vain? and can you go from one to another of the 
ordinary, perhaps trifling engagements of every- 
day life, and neglect the souls of your children 
until suddenly they be gone for ever beyond the 
call of any messenger? 

Perhaps you have a brother or a sister, or some 
near friend over whom you can exert a powerful 
influence. In just so far as that influence may 
extend that brother or friend is entrusted to you. 
Oh, be not recreant to your obligation ; turn not 
neglectfully away. That friend is in clanger; the 
battle is raging around him. He may be snatched 
away before you are aware, and what then will be 
your account of the trust? Will you be justifi- 
able upon the ground that he was never directly 
and formally committed to your care? Suppose 
that same relative or friend had fallen into the 
river, and you were standing upon the bank, look- 
ing at him as he struggled in the pitiless waters, 
as he caught at useless straws, as he sank and rose 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 



171 



again , as he turned a last momentary glance of 
hopeless agony toward the home of those he loved, 
would you turn away and say " he has never been 
specially committed to my care; I esteem him 
highly but I have never been formally constituted 
his guardian, and therefore I need not offer him 
any assistance?" No; unless your heart has 
already become the frozen sepulchre of all your 
sympathies, you would forget all such miserable 
sophistry, the ignoble excuses of cowardice, per- 
haps even your own safety, and exert your utmost 
strength to rescue him from his peril. If uncon- 
verted, he is even now in danger of a far more 
terrible doom than drowning in the waters whose 
mournful roar can be heard where his loved ones 
vainly await his return. He is in danger of sink- 
ing amid the surging billows of everlasting fire. 
Your influence may do much toward saving him, 
and will you turn away and leave him sliding 
recklessly toward the fatal brink? Will you 
leave him to perish without an effort upon your 
part, because no audible voice from Heaven has 



172 KIRKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



entrusted him to your sole guardianship, repeat- 
ing that first contemptuous inquiry of selfishness, 
"Am I my brother's keeper?" 

Will you be justifiable upon the ground that 
you were "busy here and there?" Are you 
necessarily so occupied that you can make no 
special effort to lead to the Lamb of God those 
over whom his providence has given you an im- 
mediate influence ? It is our duty to be " dili- 
gent in business/' but are the demands of business 
more important than the salvation of a soul? 
Let me suppose a case, by way of partial illustra- 
tion. Your relative or friend is ill, and the house 
in which he is lying takes fire. The relentless 
destroyer rages more and more furiously, the 
winds eagerly join in the work of ruin. The flames 
leap up as if with the fiendish laughter of con- 
scious malignity and cast their fatal contagion 
upon the roof. Clouds of smoke burst through 
every opening, here and there is heard the crash 
of falling timber, and soon the whole building 
seems to struggle like a thing of life in the deadly 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 



173 



embrace of the fell destroyer. Do you pass by 
the scene of terror, regardless of the fate of your 
friend, and hurry away on some errand of busi- 
ness? You meet some one, prompted by mere 
ordinary sympathy, running with breathless haste 
toward the conflagration. He exclaims in 
amazement, " Where are you going? Your 
friend's house is in flames ; the fire is furious, he 
is ill and helpless, he'll be injured, suffocated, 
burned up !" Do you reply, " I have need to be 
busy here and there," and then go calmly on? 
No! you seize the first ladder that can be ob- 
tained, forgetful alike of business and danger. 
With a daring spirit you mount to the window; 
you buffet the mingling flames and smoke ; you 
hold your breath; you leap into the room and 
with the strength of frenzy and the generous 
assistance of others, you drag the fainting sufferer 
out beyond the reach of harm, and the glad shout 
goes up from a hundred friendly hearts, " He is 
safe, he is safe !" 

Have you not some friend who is in imminent 

15* 



174 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



danger of sinking to eternal perdition, "where 
their worm dieth not, and the fire is not 
quenched ?" It may be that your influence might 
be made the means of saving his soul. Is your 
conscience satisfied with the reflection, — and if 
you should survive him to remember his dying 
agony, will your conscience then be satisfied with 
the reflection, that you were called to be " busy 
here and there," and while you were busy he was 
gone? O, let not the demands of worldliness, 
however numerous and loud they may be, lead 
you to neglect the eternal welfare of those whom 
God "has placed within the sphere of your imme- 
diate influence. 

Finally, life has been entrusted to you as the 
time to prepare for eternity. It is passing rapidly 
away. Its duration is wholly uncertain, every 
moment is precious. You must account for it 
all, as an invaluable trust, at the bar of God. It 
is the time to serve the Lord ; the time " to in- 
sure the great reward." As such it is to be 
accounted for at the bar of God. O ! what an 



OPPORTUNITIES LOST. 



175 



account will this be to render to the Judge upon 
the great white throne ! " As thy servant was 
busy here and there, it was gone." And if the 
Judge should ask you with what were you busy, 
oh, what would be your answer? Standing so near 
those mansions that are to resound for ever with 
the impromptu songs of perfect bliss, will you 
dare to answer, " I was busy enjoying the plea- 
sures of the world — the paltry, sickening, poison- 
ous pleasures of the sinful world ?" Standing so 
near the jasper walls and pearly gates of the holy 
city, within which are laid up such stores of 
never-fading treasures, and looking first upbn the 
flashing gems of every hue, the golden streets, 
the nameless riches and unguessed splendors of 
heaven, and then back upon the smoking, dying 
embers of the world, will you dare to answer, " I 
was busy laying up treasures upon earth?" 
Standing in the very presence of that God who 
made you, in whom you lived and moved and 
had your being, by whose bounty you were fed 
and clothed, whose air you breathed; standing 



176 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



in the presence of that God, who had a sovereign 
claim upon your supreme affections, and all your 
powers, and who asserted that claim in every 
blessing of your life, and finally in your inevi- 
table death, will you dare to answer, "I was 
busy serving mammon ?" 

Would you make a proper use of this life which 
has been entrusted to you, with all its privileges? 
then cherish the influences of the gospel — of the 
Holy Ghost — of Christian friends — of Sabbaths — 
of divine ordinances. . . . 



IV. 

THE HITMAN LEVJEXi* 

The rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of 
them all. Proverbs xxii. 2. 

QjOME of the proverbs of Solomon are ex- 
^ pressed in general terms, and have reference 
to abstract truths. The most of them are ex- 
pressed in specific terms designed for general 
application. Such is the one now before us. 
The terms rich and poor have reference, not only 
to the difference in point of wealth, in the strict 
meaning of the term, but to the whole class of 
social inequalities which are included within the 
range of this familiar contrast. Nor does the 
latter clause, "the Lord is the maker of them 
all/' refer solely to our relation to God as the 
Creator, but to all the relations we sustain to 
Him ; as if it were said, all classes of society meet 
together; they have all one God. 

177 



178 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



The whole force of the proverb depends upon 
the close and vital connection between the two 
clauses. Not merely are there two such classes 
as the rich and poor really existing; not merely 
do they meet together in the various walks of 
life, and in places of promiscuous resort — it would 
be a meagre proverb if that were all its meaning. 
The rich and poor do, indeed, meet together in 
many ways and many places, but the far greater 
truth to be found in the text, is that they all meet 
at this one point j in this one immutable fact, viz. : 
that they sustain common relations to the same 
God. Whatever their social distinctions, and 
inequalities, here they stand upon common ground. 
The main object of this discourse is to bring to 
view some particulars included in this general 
statement : to bring to view some points in which 
they meet together, in order to show that the only 
effectual remedy of social evils and inequalities is 
the true religion of the gospel, and that all classes 
need that religion. 

I. They have a common origin. "The Lord 

i 



THE HUMAN LEVEL, 



179 



is the maker of them all." "He hath made of 
one blood all nations." This does not set at 
naught the value of descent from the noble, the 
great, the wise, the good. 

There are family characteristics distinctly 
marked, estimable or contemptible, lovely or 
odious; there are hereditary excellences and de- 
fects ; there are real advantages belonging to the 
lineage of true nobility; there are real disadvan- 
tages cleaving to the lineage of poverty, and 
obscure lowliness. The children of the rich may 
have access to means of improvement, and some- 
times to positions of usefulness, from which the 
children of the poor are debarred by their circum- 
stances. And yet, on the one hand, the advan- 
tages are often utterly squandered, or perverted 
into occasions of harm, while, on the other hand, 
the disadvantages are often triumphantly over- 
come. "What then?" one may ask; "If my 
great-grandfather was a duke or a millionaire, am 
I not, on that account alone, superior to my 
neighbor whose ancestors were poor day-laborers?" 



180 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



Not a whit, unless you are wiser and better on 
that account. "What then/' another may ask; 
"Am I an heir of fortune and fame to be thrust 
down to a level with the nameless child of pov- 
erty ?" Not necessarily, and yet, you may sink 
lower in reality. That depends upon your cha- 
racter and his. But in regard to your origin 
alone; in regard to your origin considered apart 
from its actual results as they appear in your ex- 
cellency of character, you can claim no sort of 
superiority. One boasts, I was born in a palace; 
another acknowledges, I was born in a hut ; Solo- 
mon says, "The rich and poor meet together; the 
Lord is the maker of them all." 

Here let me disclaim any intention of rebuking 
that personal gratification which many enjoy in 
tracing their lineage through noble channels, 
back to noble sources. Let me disclaim any in- 
tention of undervaluing what men are pleased to 
call the science of heraldry, and any intention of 
undertaking to decide, either way, the long-con- 
tinued controversy between the aristocracy and 



THE HUMAN LEVEL. 



181 



the commonalty. Without denying the reality, 
or the validity, or the importance, or even the 
necessity of such distinctions in society, but sim- 
ply leaving them out of view, for the present, — 
let us fall back upon the fundamental truth that 
all classes meet together in their proper origin, 
since " the Lord is the maker of them all." 

It follows, both logically and theologically, 
that all men are brethren. Do not recur at once 
to some ragged vagrant whom you have recently 
met, and ask, with indignation, is he my brother? 
Be calm, while I presume to answer. He is. 
He may be a degraded brother. You may be, 
by the sovereign pleasure of God, a favored bro- 
ther ; but remember who hath made you to differ ; 
and remember, too, that this difference, wide 
though it be, does not dissolve the relationship. 
Though your brother be an outcast, though you 
may disown him, yet you cannot cut the tie of 
nature by which you are bound together. What 
follows ? Manifestly this, — that we should treat 

all men with whom we meet, as brethren by 
16 



182 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



nature. This is not to be pressed to the extreme, 
even in theory. It does not necessarily mean 
that we are to treat all men alike under all cir- 
cumstances. It is not incompatible with all 
preferences and partialities. The gospel itself 
sanctions a preference in our treatment of others. 
"Do good unto all men, especially unto those who 
are of the household of faith. 77 The principle is 
recognized in Scripture that some men have spe- 
cial claims upon our esteem and our beneficence. 
We are not required to regard the base and the 
honorable, the mean and the generous, the repul- 
sive and the amiable with precisely the same feel- 
ings. But still, with modifications of this sort, 
which do not all affect the essential idea contained 
in the proposition, it remains true that we are 
bound to treat all men as brethren. Such is the 
true spirit of evangelical religion, and thus we 
see, from this point of view, how that religion is 
adapted to remove or correct innumerable social 
evils. For, without dwelling upon the details of 
the matter, we may see, at a glance, what a great 



THE HUMAN LEVEL. 



183 



and glorious change would be wrought in the 
whole condition of society, if it was only pervaded 
by this genuine, practical brotherly-kindness 
which the gospel enjoins. 

Before leaving this topic, the sameness of ori- 
ginal nature, let us take another point of observa- 
tion. While it is true that the Lord is the maker 
of all classes of men, — still, as was remarked a 
while ago, this does not set at nought the value 
of descent from the rich or the great. There are 
real advantages belonging to such a descent. 
But in what do those real advantages consist? 
In abundant means of self-improvement, and in 
the greater opportunities of exerting a wide- 
spread influence for good. And here, we may see 
again how true religion is adapted to remove the 
lamented evils of society ; for if the rich and the 
great were also devotedly pious, and would train 
up their children in the nurture and admonition 
of the Lord, and dedicate them to his service, — 
and if the children of the rich and the great were 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the gospel, 



184 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



who does not see how they would be led to use 
their distinguishing means, and their paramount 
influence, to relieve, and enlighten, and elevate 
their less-favored fellow-men? If the boasted 
advantages of birth, and the consequent facilities 
of usefulness were all sincerely consecrated to the 
honor of God and religion, what a blessed trans- 
formation would thus be wrought in the condition 
of society, and how many mere nominal, and yet 
deplorable distinctions would thus be obliterated ! 

II. " The rich and poor meet together," as to 
their natural condition. All such classes are 
alike in this ; they are all fallen, depraved, sinful 
creatures. It follows that they all need the reli- 
gion of the gospel. They all need the transform- 
ing power of divine grace ; they all need its con- 
solations ; they all need " wisdom and righteous- 
ness, and sanctification and redemption." How- 
ever affluent may be some, and however indigent 
others, however learned may be some, and how- 
ever ignorant others, — however high, or however 
low, they are all burdened with the same neces- 



THE HUMAN LEVEL. 



185 



sity ; they are all under condemnation ; no worldly 
superiority can afford them exemption. " God is 
no respecter of persons." In regard to their con- 
dition, and spiritual necessities, they meet together 
now ; hereafter they must meet together at the 
bar of God, and if not forgiven and redeemed, 
they must meet together in the world of woe. 
Some who are overlooked, derided, spurned here, 
will be companions there ; some who are looked 
upon with awe, or fear, or raging envy here, 
will be only companions there. But, if all classes 
meet together as to their natural condition, if all 
are depraved creatures, — it follows, not only that 
all need religion as the only security for their 
everlasting welfare, but also that this same reli- 
gion is adapted to remove the obstacles that exist 
between these different classes in this world, and 
to shorten the interval between them. The 
miserable condition of society is not due to the 
mere existence of different classes, but rather to 
their feelings and conduct toward one another; 

envy, jealousy, ambition, dejection, an oppressive 
16 * 



186 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



sense of the contempt of others; pride, scorn, 
selfishness, false notions of honor, — these, and 
such as these, are the chief sources of what men 
are accustomed to call social evils. Their pol- 
luted fountain is in the depravity of human 
nature. The proper corrective is true religion. 
This tends to remove pride on the one hand, and 
envy on the other; it tends to beget a kindly 
charity on the one hand, and contentment on the 
other ; it tends to nourish a magnanimous libe- 
rality on the one hand, and by this very means to 
effect a real elevation on the other. If a rich 
man is filled with the spirit of Christ, who veiled 
his Godhead, and ate w T ith publicans and sinners, 
he will not look haughtily nor scornfully upon 
his indigent neighbor. If a poor man is filled 
with the spirit of Christ, who never complained 
though he had not where to lay his head, he will 
not be tortured with morbid jealousies, but cherish 
a quiet satisfaction with his lowly lot, while he 
actually rises in the esteem of all who estimate 
worth by the right standard. So, in general, in 



THE HUMAN LEVEL. 



187 



regard to all the extreme divisions of men ; the 
real evils which belong to them are such as spring 
from the common depravity of men. Therefore, 
the remedy is regeneration and sanctification. If 
this remedy be applied to all classes, the needed 
compromise will be effected, — and thus, true reli- 
gion, though it may not bring all classes into one, 
is yet adapted to bring all classes into harmony. 

III. "The rich and poor meet together" in 
this ; they are all subject to the same law. The 
sum of that law is this: "Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as 
thyself." The high are bound to love the low, 
and the low are bound to love the high; the rich 
are bound to love the poor, and the poor the rich. 
Whatever the ground of distinction may be, and 
however wide the distinction, the command is 
that it shall be overreached by love. "Love suf- 
fereth long and is kind, envieth not, seeketh not 
her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, 
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth 
all things, endureth all things, never faileth." 



188 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



"Love is the fulfilling of the law;" love is the 
heart of religion. The more this great obligation 
of the law is acknowledged and felt, the more 
pure religion abounds, the greater will be the 
prevalence of peace and concord, and mutual wel- 
fare, among all classes of men. Mere philan- 
thropy will not answer the purpose. It is too 
impulsive and too feeble, because it is divorced 
from a sense of duty. The charity which is 
requisite to overcome the obstacles which lie be- 
tween the different social departments is that 
which is the fulfilling of the law, that which 
springs out of supreme love to God, that which 
is characteristic of evangelical piety, and is to be 
found nowhere else. Hence, the more widely 
evangelical piety prevails, the more will men of 
all grades and conditions be led "to keep the 
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." 

IV. "The rich and poor meet together" in 
this; they must all be saved upon the same con- 
ditions. "There is no royal road" to heaven; 
there is no aristocratic way of salvation. They 



THE HUMAN LEVEL, 



189 



must kneel at the same mercy-seat; they must 
believe in the same Saviour; they must sit at the 
same communion table; they must carry on the 
same warfare; they must run the same race, and 
they look forward to the time when they shall 
stand together at the right hand of God. Thus 
religion gives men an identity of interests, a com- 
mon experience, common hopes; it brings them 
into fellowship under the most solemn and sacred 
influences, and thus its direct tendency is to 
equalize, familiarize, and harmonize all ranks of 
men. 

In the light of this subject we see (1) the im- 
portance of religion in its mere worldly bearings. 
Strange that men who profess to desire the peace 
and welfare of the community and the race, should 
contemn or overlook religion as the great means 
of securing that peace and welfare. Agrarianism ? 
socialism, philanthropic associations, mere intel- 
lectual culture, all such schemes and agencies are 
inadequate because they are superficial; they en- 
deavor to remove the evil effects while they leave 



190 lUllKPATRICK MEMORIAL. 



the causes undisturbed, in active operation. Re- 
ligion strikes at the root of all real social evils. 

(2). The importance, the duty, of endeavoring 
to promote the prevalence of religion. The phi- 
lanthropist, if he be nothing more, yet if he 
would do his utmost, if he would do that which 
is worth doing, for the benefit of his race, let him 
take this method of manifesting his philanthropy. 
The good citizen, if he be nothing more, yet if he 
would prove himself to be that, let him take this 
method of promoting the welfare of the commu- 
nity in which lie lives. It is the surest method. 
It is the method by which he can accomplish 
most. The most injurious members of commu- 
nity, so far as their influence extends, are those 
who oppose or discountenance religion ; the men 
most useful to the community are those who do 
most to encourage and promote vital godliness, 
and to maintain, and make successful, the ordained 
means of grace. It is a great mistake, to suppose 
that religion is solely a personal matter, and is 
designed to secure only the spiritual welfare of 

# 



THE HUMAN LEVEL. 



191 



the soul. It is the greatest blessing that can be 
bestowed upon human society considered in refer- 
ence to its common worldly interests. 

Here it may be objected that Christianity lias 
long been exerting its varied influences, and so- 
ciety is still infested by many and great evils. 
In answer to this objection, three remarks may be 
made. 

Fi?'st. The design of the foregoing remarks has 
been not so much to describe what religion has 
done or is doing, as to show what it is adapted 
to do. 

Secondly. A candid examination of the history 
and present state of the world is enough to con- 
vince any one that the state of society is, in every 
sense of the word, better, in Christian than in 
heathen lands; that it is better where genuine 
Christianity prevails than where a corrupt Chris- 
tianity is dominant; compare, for example, pro- 
testant Scotland with papal Ireland. Come to 
narrower fields of observation. Is there not far 
more of social equality, and social concord, and 



KIRKPATBWK MEMORIAL. 



common social enjoyment in thoroughly religious, 
than in thoroughly irreligious communities? Do 
not these social blessings abound more in churches 
which are distinguished for godliness, than in 
those which are worldly and formal? Yes; true 
religion has, in very deed, greatly blessed society 
in the very ways that have been mentioned. 

Thirdly. It is adapted to accomplish in those 
ways immensely more. The simple reason why 
it has effected so little, comparatively, is that 
there has been really so little of it at work ; and 
therefore the fact that it has accomplished so 
little, should rather be regarded as the fact that 
there is so much yet to be accomplished in order 
to make society what it ought to be. Thus this 
fact, instead of being a valid objection to the view 
we have taken of the subject, is found, after all, 
to be the great reason why all who are interested 
in the mutual welfare of all classes should use 
their utmost influence to maintain, and promote, 
and give far greater success to the genuine reli- 
gion of the gospel, 



THE HUMAN LEVEL. 



193 



To Christians, especially, this subject presents 
a higher motive. "The rich and poor meet to- 
gether, and the Lord is the maker of them all." 
In other words, in their relations to God, they all 
stand upon the same ground. They are all sin- 
ners by nature and by practice ; unless converted 
they are all condemned. They are all to stand 
before the judgment-seat of Christ. They are all 
to be saved or lost. Eternity will be as long, the 
second death will be as terrible, and everlasting 
life will be as precious, to one as to another. 
Hence it is our duty to exert ourselves for the 
salvation of all classes. When Christ came it 
was said, "The poor have the gospel preached 
unto them." They ought to have, they must 
have, they will be for ever undone without it. 
We must preach the gospel to them ; we must 
send the gospel to them. When Peter was sent 
to preach Christ to the Gentiles, a voice from 
Heaven said unto him, " What God hath cleansed, 
that call not thou common or unclean." The 

gospel does not belong to the favored classes 
17 



194 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



alone, — it does not belong alone to those who can 
afford to build handsome churches. It is adapted 
to all; it is indispensable to all, and it is the 
solemn duty of those who enjoy its blessings to 
send it with all its treasures of life and immor- 
tality to those who are destitute in other lands, 
and in other parts of our own land, and to use 
all proper means to bring the neglected classes 
immediately around them under these transform- 
ing and saving influences. 

Finally, this subject admits of a more directly 
personal application. The rich must become 
poor in spirit, and the poor must become rich in 
faith. Men of all classes and conditions must 
humble themselves before God, must acknowledge 
their guilt, must renounce the world, must accept 
salvation as a gift of free grace 



V, 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 



For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be 
repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 2 Co- 
rinthians vii. 10. 



iHIS fallen world is full of sorrow. Go whither 



you will, you will find its causes ; its unmis- 
takable tokens ; its familiar emblems ; its doleful, 
or its happy results. There are happy homes; 
but there is sorrow even in the midst of them. 
There are stories of Elysian fields and Utopian 
isles, and Fairy palaces, but no mortal has jour- 
„ neyed beyond the dark-shaded domain of sorrow, 
except in his dreams, waking or sleeping. It 
has a large share in the mighty work of swaying 
the world ; it has a language of its own, common 
to all nations and all times, by which wanderers 
from the most distant lands can freely mingle 
their emotions of grief and sympathy. 




195 



19(> 



KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



The operations of sorrow are wonderfully 
various ; to one, it is a burden, pressing the soul 
down into the deep of death, — to another, it is a 
buoy upon which he floats over the sea of life 
into the haven of eternal rest ; here it grows mor- 
bidly to madness, — there it blooms into everlast- 
ing delight. While, in every case, it is the con- 
sequence of sin ; in one, it still leads on to sin ; 
in another, it is the first step toward complete 
deliverance from evil. The Apostle here specifies 
two forms of sorrow. 

I. Consider the sorrow of the world. Of this 
there are three kinds. (1) That which arises 
from a fear of the punishment due for sin, and 
yet not accompanied with any hatred of moral 
evil. Doubtless every man has known by expe- 
rience something of this. For even without the 
gospel, and without the written law, men have a 
consciousness of guilt more or less distinct ; " For 
when the Gentiles which have not the law, do 
by nature the things contained in the law, these 
having not the law are a law unto themselves ; 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 197 



which show the work of the law written in their 
hearts ; their conscience also bearing witness, and 
their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else 
excusing one another." No man is a stranger to 
this fear of punishment, this legal conviction ; 
and it is vain for any man, infidel or moralist, 
utterly to disclaim the regrets that spring out of 
it. Whatever the obduracy and recklessness, 
which he would fain dignify with nobler names, 
he has felt and mourned that he was under con- 
demnation. This is indeed, as we shall see, one 
element of a better kind of sorrow, but of itself, 
it brings forth no good fruit. A man may pos- 
sibly cherish it until he has no joy, no peace, no 
rest, and yet make no further advancement toward 
reconciliation with God. Whatever the depth of 
his sorrow, simply on account of his exposure to 
the penalty of God's violated law, if that be all 
of it, and continue to be all, that penalty will 
surely yet overtake him in its resistless rush. 
Indeed, it not only of itself fails to bring forth 

life, and ward off eternal- wrath, but it sometimes 
17* 



198 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



literally worketh death. It is equally strange 
and true that men often rush most hastily upon 
the very edge and brunt of that which they most 
dread. The fate of him who sold the life of his 
Lord for thirty pieces of silver horribly illustrated 
the death-working power of this deep sorrow. 
When he saw that Jesus was condemned, he 
repented himself, and came to the chief priests 
and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have 
betrayed the innocent blood; he cast down the 
pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and 
went and hanged himself. Not a few have been 
driven by the same power to the same desperation 
and a similar doom. 

(2). That which arises from disappointment in 
regard to the accomplishment of some evil pur- 
poses, or from envy in view of the prosperity of 
others, or from the indulgence of some other un- 
holy affection. This works death in so far as it 
is sinful in itself. To grieve because our evil 
designs have been baffled by God or man, is in 
itself a sin; to repine because the providence of 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 199 



God has passed us by to heap distinguishing 
favors in the lap of another, is itself a sin. The 
indulgence of any such sorrow, which springs 
from depraved affections or emotions, is sin, and 
the wages of all sin is death. But this is not all 
The kind of sorrow which we are now considering 
acts by a reflex power upon the very emotions by 
which it was engendered; it stirs up the depths 
of depravity in the heart; it inflames evil pas- 
sions; it gives new impulses in the path of ini- 
quity. Grief for the disappointment of wicked 
desires, often prompts to the formation and exe- 
cution of new plans for the accomplishment of 
the same desires. If a man grieve because his 
friend is more prosperous than he, that grief will 
hardly fail to beget jealousy, and may easily 
nourish that jealousy into the hideous maturity 
of hatred. If a man grieve because his ungodly 
lusts have been deprived of their polluted enjoy- 
ments, or because they have mistaken misery for 
pleasure, his grief will the more enrage those very 
lusts. In brief, sinful sorrow is like a festering 



200 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

wound in the heart ; it stimulates and exasperates 
those very evil passions from which it springs, 
and thus indirectly, but with dreadful certainty, 
if left to have its course, it worketh death. 

(3). The last of the three kinds included in the 
sorrow of the world is that which may be called 
natural in distinction from moral. It is that pain 
or uneasiness of the heart which is produced by 
the loss of any lawful good, or by disappointment 
in the expectation of any such good. In itself 
considered, this has no moral character. It is 
often mingled with godly sorrow; it is sometimes 
made the means of awakening godly sorrow. 
The heart is smitten; the man is brought to real- 
ize, in a new degree, the instability of mere 
earthly good. He is induced to look for more 
worthy and enduring objects of affection, and at 
the same time is made to feel that he is a sufferer 
because he is a sinner. He is led to look more 
deeply into his own heart, and to contrast him- 
self and his life, with the character, the law, the 
providence, and the forbearance of God, and thus, 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 201 



or by some similar process, lie is led to the exer- 
cise of genuine repentance. Many a man lias 
walked, with downcast face and tearful eyes, 
through a dark and thorny path of sorrow, not 
knowing whither he went, until he emerged into 
the path of the just which "is as the shining 
light that shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day." Many a man has devoutly thanked God for 
the stroke which well nigh broke his heart, and 
thus constrained him to seek the great Physician 
who not only binds up the broken heart, but heals 
for ever all the deep-seated maladies of the spirit. 
On the same familiar principle, afflictions are often 
used as the means of sanctifying those who have 
believed. Natural sorrow is poured into their 
breasts to minister to their purification. It is a 
mysterious but a gracious arrangement. And, 
hence, being the subject of great afflictions does 
not necessarily prove one to be a conspicuously 
great sinner. This was the mistake into which 
the friends of Job fell; their reproachful advice 
was given upon this false assumption, and one 



202 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



great design of that book was, doubtless, to teach 
that we should not judge of the characters of 
men by God's dealings with them in the present 
life, Many of his chosen, devoted servants are 
made to drink the cup of sorrow to the dregs, 
that thereby, through a process peculiar to God's 
economy of grace, they may be prepared for 
larger and purer draughts of joy. There is mercy 
in the form of judgment; grief is sown, but the 
harvest is everlasting joy. 

Still, when separated from the fear and love of 
God, and faith in Christ, even this natural sorrow 
of the heart worketh death. Not only does it 
drink up the spirits, and banish animating hopes, 
and derange the nervous system, and prey upon 
the energies, and thus, when inordinately indulged 
sometimes hasten temporal death; but, unless re- 
strained and sanctified by the Spirit of God, it 
has a tendency to work out everlasting death. It 
excites a spirit of rebellion against Jehovah. It 
is an unqualified declaration of Scripture and 
abundantly confirmed by human experience in its 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 203 



widest range, that men have a natural disposition 
to contend against God. Who does not know 
how alarmingly that disposition is quickened by 
sorrow? How hard it is to submit to mighty be- 
reavements w T ith an uncomplaining spirit? How 
prone we are to resist His will when it is em- 
bodied in the heartless forms of adversity? How 
a single stroke of his rod arouses a sudden rebel- 
lion in the bosom? And if this is often the 
actual result of sorrow, in its most violent opera- 
tions, every smaller degree of it, has, in its own 
measure, the same dangerous tendency. It is a 
fearful tendency; at the very best, we have too 
strong an inclination to resist God, and we have 
reason to dread the force of such a stimulant. 
We have far more reason to deprecate sorrow, be- 
cause of this danger, than because of the pain it 
brings ; we have far more reason to seek the grace 
of God to counteract this tendency, than to seek 
his consolations for the mere relief they bring. 

This sorrow sometimes results in turning the 
current of aifection with fatal certainty, and re- 



204 



KIRKPA TR ICR MEMORIAL. 



doubled intensity toward some other earthly 
object which comes into the place of that which 
has been lost and mourned. How often does it 
occur, that when parents lose one child in their 
sadness, they cling with more fondness and in- 
creasing devotion to another that is left? So in a 
multitude of similar and various instances, sorrow 
for the loss of one object forges new chains and 
binds us more firmly to others. By nature, we 
are prone to idolatry as the sparks fly upward, 
and when our idols are torn away, our very sor- 
row often makes us more idolatrous. In this par- 
ticular, its tendency is to evil and to death. 

Sometimes it begets a morbid disgust for the 
world, and leads to a misanthropic seclusion from 
its kindly and salutary influences. True, the 
world is full of temptations, and it might be 
thought, at first view, that seclusion was the best 
place for the cultivation of piety and spiritual 
life. Thus many have thought in every age, but 
the history of all such experiments has proved 
the notion a fallacy. Man is a social being, and 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 205 



even his spiritual nature has social relations which 
cannot be torn asunder with impunity. Occa- 
sional retirement is indispensable to growth in 
grace, but a soul in habitual seclusion is like a 
plant in a dark cellar. Although the world is 
full of temptations, there are many genial, and 
healthful, and converting, and purifying influences 
circulating through the varied channels of social 
and religious life, and when sorrow drives men 
into a misanthropic seclusion, it is exerting no 
trifling tendency to death. 

Even in less conspicuous instances, in ordinary 
instances, it often tends to death. If it does not 
soften, it hardens the heart. Men are exhorted 
to rejoice with trembling, but sorrow is little less 
dangerous. These which have been mentioned 
are some of the ways in which it worketh death. 
O, how much need we have, in all our afflictions, 
to guard against the excessive indulgence of sor- 
row, and to seek the restraining and sanctifying 
grace of God to counteract its evil tendencies, and 
prevent its fatal working. 

18 



206 KIRKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



II. Let us now turn our attention to that 
which the apostle calls " godly sorrow/' In gen- 
eral, it is that of which God, the Holy Spirit, is 
the author. Like faith, it is his gift. It is that 
which is excited through certain views of God. 
He who does not behold God as a holy Being; he 
who has no correct views of his justice; he who 
despises the goodness of Him against whom his 
sins have been committed, can have no godly 
sorrow. It is that which in all its exercises con- 
templates God as the ultimate object. Such sor- 
row David had when he exclaimed " Against thee, 
thee only have I sinned." The great sin of his 
life was enormous, even as a sin against his fellow- 
man; but its injustice and cruelty to him were 
completely absorbed in that heinousness which 
characterized it as a sin against God. If we do 
not perceive and feel that all our sins of every 
grade are committed against God, and that in that 
opposition consists the essence of their sinfulness 
we do not exercise a godly sorrow for them. The 
chief elements of godly sorrow are these: 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 207 



1. A sense of guilt. Guilt is not synonymous 
with sin. It means a just exposure to the penalty 
of the violated law; desert of punishment. The 
sinner must not only feel that he is liable to pun- 
ishment, that he is in danger of it, but that he 
deserves it, and that God would be just in his 
damnation. There may be "a fearful looking for 
of judgment, and fiery indignation which shall 
devour the adversaries/' and yet no true convic- 
tion of the personal desert of that judgment and 
indignation. But terror, apart from shame and 
self-condemnation, is no element of godly sorrow. 

2. It includes, also, a conviction of the in- 
trinsic evil of sin, and its odiousness before God. 
Accordingly we find that the most moral and up- 
right men in human estimation, when their eyes 
are opened to an humbling view of their own 
hearts, condemn themselves, not only as sinners, 
but as great sinners. They see that sin, all sin, 
any sin, is vile, miserably vile; and though the 
crimes of many others may be of deeper and 
blacker turpitude; although their sins are com- 



208 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



paratively small, yet, absolutely, they are " ex- 
ceedingly sinful," because they have been com- 
mitted against the law, the will, the very nature 
of Him who is holiness itself. If any man have 
not such a sense and abhorrence of the evil nature 
of sin, apart from the number and magnitude of 
his transgressions, he has not genuine godly 
sorrow. 

3. It includes, also, a sense of base ingratitude. 
Who can have a just view of sin as committed 
against that God who is love, whose goodness and 
mercy have followed him all the days of his life, 
and indeed feel that his very life is but the pro- 
tracted forbearance of God who is "not willing 
that any should perish, but that all should be 
saved and come to the knowledge of the truth?" 
Who can have a just view of his iniquities in their 
contrast with infinite benevolence, and mercy, and 
love, without an overwhelming conviction that he 
has been grievously ungrateful? Such are the 
elements of godly sorrow. 

III. It is a fatal mistake to confound sorrow 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 209 



and repentance; they are widely different. One 
is the cause, the other the effect. One is the tree, 
the other is the fruit. We can readily conceive 
of a man being sorry for sin all his life, and yet 
dying without repentance. It is not improbable 
that many a self-deceived soul has gone to ever- 
lasting perdition because he was content with 
sorrow under the name of repentance. Even 
godly sorrow is not enough to insure pardon, un- 
less it progresses to its legitimate issue. It work- 
eth repentance. Here is the grand test for godly 
sorrow. If it be genuine, it will always produce 
this result. If it come short of this, it is worth- 
less, yea worse, it is the death- working sorrow of 
the world under a borrowed title. 

What then is this repentance in which godly 
sorrow eventuates ? The word literally means a 
change of mind, a change of the prevailing pur- 
pose, and inclination of the mind. And when a 
man changes his mind, he changes his plan and 
conduct. Thus genuine repentance is never sepa- 
rate from outward reformation. The man who 

18 * 



210 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



professes to be sorry for his sins, and yet does not 
sincerely and habitually endeavor to forsake them, 
is false to his God, and false to himself, — for 
godly sorrow worketh repentance. It worketh a 
change of mind, a change of the moral disposition 
and inclinations and desires, and moral habits of 
the soul, and a corresponding change in the tenor 
of the outward life. Of this process the final end 
is salvation. Sorrow is bitter, repentance is diffi- 
cult; but salvation is — what shall I say? It is 
an everlasting mystery of blissful glory. It is 
beyond description, and therefore the Apostle 
adds these words, " not to be repented of." This 
phrase may have reference, either to the repent- 
ance or the salvation. 

The word here translated " not to be repented 
of" is very different from the former word repent- 
ance. It occurs in only one other place in the 
New Testament where it is said that " the gifts 
and calling of God are without repentance." 
There it is generally understood to mean " secure, 
certain, unchangeable." Accordingly it might 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 211 



here mean that salvation thus effected is un- 
changeable ; once obtained, it is secure for ever ; 
for we may be well persuaded " that neither death 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor dejDth, nor any other creature shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God which is in 
Christ Jesus our Lord." More probably, how- 
ever, it refers to repentance, and means not to be 
regretted. 

In this the Apostle has declared the invariable 
experience of all true penitents. There may have 
been victims of delusion, who, in the black mid- 
night of apostacy, have regretted that they ever 
united with the visible church of God without a 
spark of true religion. Many doubtless have 
regretted that they mistook the dangerous sorrow 
of the world for godly sorrow. But let the ene- 
mies of religion, and all ingenious antiquarian 
skeptics roll out and sift all the confessions, and 
pry into all the secrets of the universal scroll of 
history. They will search in vain for any man 



212 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



who has for a moment repented of genuine re- 
pentance. 

When will a man repent of that? When he 
is struggling to be free from sin because it is his 
worst enemy ? As soon would a man repent of 
his fear while he was fleeing from the jaws of a 
roaring lion. Will he repent of it while he lives, 
rejoicing in the favor of that God whose frown 
rests upon the unbeliever; rejoicing in commu- 
nion with Him whose loving-kindness is better 
than life; rejoicing in that peace of conscience 
which the world can neither give nor take away ; 
66 rejoicing in hope of the glory of God ?" Will 
he repent of it in the hour of death, when a new 
smile of heavenly love falls gently on him, and 
he exclaims to the praise of divine grace, "I have 
fought a good fight ; I have finished my course ; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness ?" 

Will he repent of it when his transported spirit 
enters the gate of the celestial city, while a wel- 
coming flood of light and music lifts him gently 



THE TWO FORMS OF SORROW. 213 



into the very presence of his heavenly Father ? 
Will he repent of it when he sees his name in the 
Lamb's book of Life ? Will he repent of it when 
the crown is placed upon his brow and the harp 
in his hand? Will he repent of it when his 
voice swells up spontaneously, and to his own 
rapturous amazement, harmoniously into the great 
choral song of redemption ? Will he ever, ever 
in the lapse of ages, sit down wearied with the 
joys of heaven, tired of the beatific vision, and 
regret that he repented of his sins ? 
Converse.* 

* This word is retained in its solitariness, as a specimen of the 
suggestive terms frequently employed hy Mr. Kirkpatrick in his 
sermons, and especially at their close. With an unfettered spirit 
he addressed his exhortations to his hearers. Much of his power 
was manifested in these extemporaneous appeals. — Editor. 



VI. 

DO YE WOW BELIEVE? 
Do ye now believe? John xvi. 31. 

riTHE Saviour knew the hearts of all. He 
needed not that any one should testify of 
man, for he himself knew what was in man. 
Yet he often asked questions. He did so for the 
benefit of others. He suggested questions which 
his disciples might repeat to one another and to 
themselves, with the design of bringing their own 
experience under review, and in order to show 
them the state of their own hearts through the 
candid answers of their own consciences. Under 
this category comes the question now before us. 
It was addressed to the disciples immediately 
after a decided profession, upon their part, of in- 
telligent confidence in him. As the case often is, 
this question expresses different shades of mean- 

214 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 215 

mg according to the emphasis with which it is 
pronounced. By looking at its different phases, 
we may, by the blessing of God, obtain varied 
instruction and profit. The original emphasis, or 
precise statement of the question as uttered by the 
Saviour, can hardly be determined with certainty ; 
but we shall not fail, surely, to include it, if we 
duly consider the natural and profitable varia- 
tions of the inquiry which accord with the context 
on the one hand, and with certain common va- 
rieties of human experience on the other. 

I. We may understand this question as having 
reference to the reality of faith, to saving faith as 
distinguished from other grades of belief. Do ye 
now believe, indeed, in the highest sense ; in the 
gospel sense? Shortly before these words were 
uttered, in his interview with the disciples, Christ 
had made this declaration, " A little while, and 
ye shall not see me ; and again a little while, and 
ye shall see me; because I go to the Father." 
"Then said some of his disciples among them- 
selves, what is this that he saith unto us, a little 



216 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



while. We cannot tell what he saith." Jesus 
followed with an explanation of his saying, and 
the explanation ended thus, " I came forth from 
the Father and am come into the world ; again, 
I leave the world and go to the Father." This 
explanation was unasked. Jesus perceived their 
need of it, and their desire for it, and to their 
astonishment had precisely met that desire. They 
replied, "Lo now speakest thou plainly, and 
speakest no proverb. Now we are sure that thou 
knowest all things, and need est not that any man 
should ask thee; by this we believe that thou 
earnest forth from God." Jesus answered in sub- 
stance thus ; Ye believe that I have an insight 
into the heart; ye believe that I came forth from 
God ; but do you exercise an implicit trust in me 
as your only and all-sufficient Saviour? The 
question in this form comes home to us. Belief 
in the Scriptures, as the word of God, is indeed 
indispensable to salvation. It is the first step, 
without which, most assuredly, the goal cannot 
be reached. No man who rejects the Bible can 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 217 



go to heaven, whether he be a heathen groping in 
darkness, or an infidel blind in the midst of light. 
Therein, the way of life is made known. With- 
out it that way is unknown, and how can a man 
travel to the region of immortal bliss unless he 
knows the way? It is in vain that men talk 
about the religion of nature, or the light of reason, 
or special revelations, or the "eternal verities" 
that are latent in the consciousness, or the claims 
of human virtue, or the untrammelled goodness 
of God, which must by a logical necessity, confer 
happiness upon all men. All religion is as un- 
stable and useless, for everlasting purposes, as 
chaff, except the religion of the Bible. You, 
doubtless, believe in the Bible, but that is not 
enough. Though your convictions in this respect 
be unwavering ; though you may be able to de- 
fend them with impregnable arguments ; though 
you may be accustomed to maintain them with 
reasons as familiar to you as household words, 
and as strong as the testimony of the senses ; still 
the question recurs, "Do you believe?" Import- 

19 



218 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



ant, essential as it is, yet comparatively, a mere 
faith in the evidences of Christianity may be 
regarded as no faith at all, and as though that 
were entirely beneath the view, it may still be 
asked, do you now believe ? Not, do you believe 
the Scriptures? but do you believe in the Sa- 
viour ? 

It is worth our while to dwell upon this point, 
plain as it is, because such a dangerous practical 
mistake is so commonly made just here. So 
many who would shrink with horror from the 
dismal abyss of infidelity, are yet satisfied with a 
mere nominal Christianity ; so many yielding the 
assent of their understandings merely, are resting 
in a false and perilous security. You might not 
only believe the Scriptures, but commit them all 
to memory, and choose to die with the well-worn 
volume beneath your head, and yet, if you went 
no farther, if you did not repent, and discard your 
own righteousness, and receive the Saviour, your 
everlasting experience would be but the fulfilment 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 



219 



of that awful denunciation, " He that believeth 
not shall be damned." 

And there is another thought in connection with 
this, which we cannot overlook. Your acquaint- 
ance with the word of God, if not followed by a 
saving faith, will enhance your condemnation. 
"That servant which knew his Lord's will, and 
prepared not himself, neither did according to his 
will, shall be beaten with many stripes; while he 
that knew not and did commit things worthy of 
stripes, shall be beaten with few." Do you doubt 
it? do you hesitate about the application of it? 
"Go ye and learn what this meaneth," "Unto 
whomsoever much is given, of him will much be 
required." 

The disciples had just declared their faith in 
the divinity of Christ. "Now we are sure that 
thou knowest all things, and needest not that any 
man should ask thee." Omniscience is an attri- 
bute of Deity alone. It cannot belong to any 
creature. To believe, as the disciples did, that 
Jesus knoweth all things is to believe that he is 



220 



KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



Divine. This is essential to salvation. The 
Scriptures make it an express condition ; " Who 
is he that overcometh the world, but he that 
belie veth that Jesus is the Son of God?" But 
this is not enough. The remarks just made upon 
the foregoing topic would be applicable here. 
Here is the same danger of false security, and 
even a greater danger. You may believe that 
Jesus is the Son of God; you may admire his 
exhibitions of the Godhead ; you may admire the 
glorious perfection of his character; that admira- 
tion may even be such as to prompt you to imi- 
tate, in some respects, his beautiful example, and 
yet, in reality, you may reject him and perish. 
O, be not satisfied with correct intellectual appre- 
hensions of the Saviour! Cast away your own 
righteousness ; abandon every scheme of salvation 
by works; receive the Saviour; embrace him with 
love; with a sense of your lost condition cast 
yourself into his arms for safety; banish every 
other hope of salvation that would cheat your 
soul of heaven; with humility, and penitence, 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 



221 



and simple implicit trust, rely upon Him; give 
him your heart and all your powers ; give your- 
self unreservedly to him to be saved by his grace, 
and to be used for his glory. In this sense, "do 
ye now believe?" 

II. We may understand this question as in- 
tended to remind us of the possibility of being 
self-deceived, and to incite us to a renewed inves- 
tigation of the matter. "Do ye now believe?" 
Are you assured of that? Let us not repel the 
inquiry as an uncharitable insinuation ; but aware 
of our liability to err even in so vital a matter, 
let us humbly and sternly ask ourselves the ques- 
tion, Do I indeed believe? In order to answer 
this correctly, let us look for the Scriptural evi- 
dences of genuine faith. 

It is the gift of God; it is wrought in us by 
his Holy Spirit; and there are certain exercises 
antecedent and preparatory to the introduction 
and exercise of faith. (1). Illumination. This 
is the first requisite, in time, if not in importance. 
When Christ sent Paul to preach to the Gentiles, 

19* 



222 KIRKPATRWK MEMORIAL, 



his commission was in these words: "To open 
their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to 
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, 
that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and in- 
heritance among them which are sanctified by 
faith that is in me." How can a man receive 
Christ while he is blind, or in darkness? If we 
have not been enlightened we have not believed. 
It is comparatively easy to determine whether we 
have been enlightened; if so, our views of sin, 
and holiness, of truth and error, of justice and 
the mercy of God in Christ have been vastly 
changed. If we regard these things as we for- 
merly did, we have not been enlightened; if our 
views are not materially changed, we have sad 
reason to fear that our illumination has been only 
a hallucination; for, as one* has well said, "If 
God has opened our eyes by saving illumination, 
we will find as great a dilference betwixt our 
former and present apprehensions of sin and 
danger as betwixt a painted lion upon the wall or 

* Flavel. 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE f 



223 



a sign-post, and the real living lion that meets us 
roaring in the way." 

(2) . Conviction, also, must precede faith. The 
Spirit first convinces of sin, then of righteous- 
ness. "Kepent and believe," is the invariable 
form of the command. Men must have some 
"sick days and restless nights for sin before they 
rightly close with Christ by faith." True, con- 
victions are more pungent and distressing in some 
cases than others; some are left to writhe in agony 
for days, or weeks, but this is not the experi- 
ence of every true convert. This is not necessary, 
not indispensable. And yet if we have not been 
thoroughly convicted of sin ; if we have not seen 
our exposure to divine vengeance with alarm ; if 
we have not looked upon sin with abhorrence; if 
we have not looked upon our own sins with deep 
contrition; if we have not come to a practical 
willingness and determination to forsake sin, then, 
we have not believed. 

(3) . Self-distrust, self-despair must also precede 
faith. "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 



224 KIBKPATBICK MEMORIAL. 



exclaimed the stricken multitude upon the day of 
Pentecost. It was the language of men who felt 
that they were lost; who felt, in the depth of 
their souls, that they could not save themselves, 
and that there was no way of escape by any 
chance, or any possibility, through the sympathies, 
and interposition of any creature on earth or in 
heaven. It is the language which must break 
forth from the fulness of every heart before it 
will rest upon Christ. No man will truly rely 
upon the Saviour until he is deeply and practi- 
cally convinced of his own desperate condition. 
If we have not felt as really that we were lost, 
and as utterly distrustful of our own powers as 
though we were falling from an overhanging 
precipice, of almost measureless height, into the 
raging sea, then it is to be feared, we have not 
believed. 

(4). The consequence of this sense of ruin, and 
absolute helplessness must be earnest, agonizing 
prayer to God for faith. Not an indifferent peti- 
tion, with a lie in its bosom ; not a mere spasmo- 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 



225 



die shriek of anguish shaped into a prayer; but 
vehement^ importunate, persevering supplication. 
One who is passing through a genuine experience 
of conversion will prostrate himself before the 
throne of grace, with the burden of some such 
prayer as this: "Lord, help my unbelief/' "God 
be merciful to me a sinner/' I am undone; O, 
give me Christ or I perish for ever; deny me not; 
give me Christ if thou take away every earthly 
friend. Lead me to the cross, even though I 
should be compelled to bear the cross until I sink 
into death. Give me faith, even if thou take 
away, in return, everything I have ; give me faith, 
even if thou take away my life. " How can I let 
thee go without thy ble*ssing!" If we have not 
been led to call upon God for faith, with all the 
earnestness of which our souls were ca*pable, then,, 
it is to be feared, we have not believed, 

Let us look further at some of the effects of 
genuine faith. (1). One is sincere gratitude ; " a 
melting of the heart under the apprehensions of 
grace and mercy." Who can believe that Christ 



226 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



is able and willing to save him; who can con- 
template the awful humiliation of the Son of 
God; who can trace his life of toil, and privation 
and suffering ; who can behold him in the gar- 
den, in the midst of the maddened mob, on the 
cross, and believe that he suffered all that for 
him ; who can believe that Jesus is actually bear- 
ing him in his arms above the scene of ruin, 
above the carnage of death, above the mighty 
sweep of wrath, upholding him in safety while 
the ministers of vengeance strive together in their 
ravages below, and carrying him up, up into the 
invigorating uncontaminated air ; up, up into the 
purifying light of eternal rest, and sanctity and 
life ; who can believe all this without unspeakable 
gratitude? Such a thankfulness as cannot be 
awakened by any proofs of human friendship; 
such as cannot be awakened by the bestowment 
of any temporal good. 

(2). " Faith without works is dead." "What 
doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he 
hath faith, and have not works ; can faith save 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 



227 



him ?" Can such a faith save him ? " If a brother 
or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 
and one of you say unto them depart in peace, be 
ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give 
them not those things which are needful to the 
body, what doth it profit ?" What is such love 
worth? What would the sufferer deem it, but a 
mockery of his misery? Even so, faith, if it 
does not prove its genuineness by works is dead, 
worthless, deceptive, dangerous. Faith without 
obedience is a dream. We might as well talk of 
a living tree in summer, without fruit or foliage ; 
we might as well talk of a sun without light or 
heat. Paul speaks of "the obedience of faith," 
almost as though the two were identical. If we 
do not make it the great business of our lives to 
do the will of Christ, then, assuredly, we have 
not believed. 

(3). " Faith works by love." It will show its 
energy in the heart by love to Christ, love to his 
cause, love to his followers. It works through 
love ; it prompts not only to obedience but to a 



228 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

willing, cheerful discharge of d*ity. It manifests 
itself in the form of love which yields its appro- 
priate fruits. Would you be satisfied with the 
affection of a professed friend who did nothing 
for your welfare, manifested no sympathy with 
your feelings, no concern for your interests? Our 
love to God is an empty name, if it does not flow 
out into a life of cordial devotion to his service, 
and thus assert the genuineness of our faith. 

(4) . " Faith purifies the heart." Other motives, 
selfish, or legal, or moral, may cleanse the hands, 
and may regulate the conduct, but they cannot 
purify the heart. Morality may partially conceal 
inward corruption, but it cannot remove it. 
While the Holy Spirit is the efficient cause, faith 
is the instrument of purification. Where unholy 
passions rage and reign ; where the natural cor- 
ruption remains undiminished; where the sin- 
sores are still festering with unabated virulence ; 
where the heart is not purer than it was, there is 
no true faith. 

(5) , " Faith overcomes the world." The world, 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 



229 



in this sense, is an enemy to be conquered. We 
must overcome the inordinate influences of its 
honors, and treasures, and pleasures, and decora- 
tions, and friendship. We must overcome our 
fear of the frowns, and rage, and contempt of 
worldly men. It is faith that does this. If the 
world has hitherto overcome us, we have not yet 
believed. If we have not overcome the world, 
we have not rightly believed. 

Such are the evidences of saving faith. In 
view of them the solemn question recurs to us, 
" Do ye now believe ?" Let us not shrink from 
it; let us not repel it; let us repeat it to our- 
selves, and search our experience for the answer. 

III. This question may be understood as re- 
buking a former want or weakness of faith. 
Before this particular interview with his disciples, 
Christ had sufficiently manifested his character 
as a ground of confidence. They had believed, 
but - their faith had been weak. Upon this new 
and striking display of his omniscience, they ex- 
claimed " Now we are sure/' Is not our faith 

20 



230 KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

produced, or awakened, and renewed sometimes 
by special and remarkable exhibitions of his 
power and mercy ? Such a marked increase of 
faith presupposes former doubt; at such a time 
the Saviour saith unto us, " Do ye now believe V 
Ye had before abundant reason to believe; ye 
have always reason ; why should your faith pass 
through such frequent vacillations ? Why should 
it waver and recover, fail and revive, wane and 
wax, so much? Why do ye not always believe 
more firmly, without extraordinary causes? Do 
we not deserve this rebuke for our habitual or 
frequent deficiency in this particular ? 

IV. This question may be understood as an 
admonition not to boast of our faith presumptu- 
ously, but to beware lest it should fail in the hour 
of trial. This was most probably the original 
design of the inquiry. Jesus answered them "Do 
ye now believe? Behold the hour cometh, yea, is 
now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man 
to his own, and shall leave me alone!" And so 
it came to pass; when he was arrested "they all 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE f 231 

forsook him and fled," Let us profit by that; 
"Do ye now believe?" Be not too well satisfied 
with your present faith ; when it shall be weighed 
in the balance, it may be found wanting; at the 
time of severe testing, it may fail. Lest it should 
fail, let us seek to have it strengthened. Let us 
not be content with what we have; let us cry out 
frequently and earnestly in prayer, "Lord, increase 
our faith." Enable us to stand in the evil day, 
lest we be scattered, and leave thee alone! Our 
trials are many; we need much faith. It is the 
gift of God; conscious of our dependence upon 
him for it, let us not cease to seek importunately 
for more and more faith. 

Unconverted friends, "It is a faithful saying, 
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners." "God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not 
perish, but have everlasting life." He has given 
himself a sacrifice; the sacrifice has been accepted ; 
the foundation of Gospel hopes is as firm as eter- 



232 K1UKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



nal truth. "Bo ye now believe?" Witness the 
love of Jesus; behold his condescension in the 
manger, his life of labor and heavenly kindness; 
see him in his agony; counting blood-like drops 
upon his brow; see him on the cross; hear him 
groan ; see the light of life fading away from his 
eye of innocence; "Do ye now believe?" 

Witness the power of Jesus; see him opening 
blind eyes to the streaming light; hear him speak- 
ing to sad souls which deafness had long kept 
shut up in their silent cells away from every ac- 
cent of sympathy and every cadence of melody; 
hear him calling Lazarus from the tomb, and 
driving foul spirits into darkness with a word, 
and rebuking to silence the mad sea; behold him 
folding up and laying aside the cerements of death 
and coming forth from the sepulchre as the resur- 
rection and the life; "Do ye now believe?" 

" He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
life; he that believeth not the Son shall not see 
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." "Do 
ye now believe?" not now? not yet? When then 



DO YE NOW BELIEVE? 233 



will ye believe? What additional reason, proof, 
and motive do you demand? There is reason 
enough, proof enough, motive enough; they are 
high as heaven, deep as hell, vast as eternity. 
Why will ye not believe ? Why not now ? " Now 
is the accepted time, this is the day of salvation." 
20* 



VII. 

1LTE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF. 

If thy hand offend thee, cut it off. .... If thy foot offend 
thee, cut it off. ... . And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. 
Mark ix. 43, 45, 47. 

IT 7 HEN the Christian courage of Cranmer was 
* ' brought fairly to the test of persecution it 
gave way, and in his timidity he signed an instru- 
ment retracting the protestant sentiments he had 
avowed. Soon after, by the grace of God he re- 
pented of his recantation, and determined again, 
with more than his former firmness, to advocate 
the cause of Christ, if need be, at the sacrifice of 
life. When he was brought to the stake, deeply 
grieved on account of his late defection, he de- 
liberately thrust his right hand into the flames, 
saying, "that hand which did the wicked deed, 

shall suffer first; that unworthy hand!" That 
234 



THE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF. 235 

was a strong expression of his self-condemnation 
and repentance, and a noble testimony in favor of 
the cause to which he was a martyr ; but although 
it conformed so nearly to the letter of the text, it 
was not strictly an exemplification of its spirit. 

The descendants and co-religionists of those 
who put Cranmer to death, fast often, afflict their 
bodies and make sacrifices, and perform difficult 
works, and pay large sums, and enslave them- 
selves to the power of priestcraft, in order to 
secure the pardon of their sins, and work out 
their salvation meritoriously; but that is very far 
from complying with the sense of the injunction 
in our text. Some, yes, great multitudes have 
lacerated their bodies, and subjected themselves to 
constant physical suffering, in one form or an- 
other, in order to bring their unholy propensities 
into subjection, and free their souls from the evil 
which they supposed originated, and held its 
dominion in their bodies. This, of course, is 
still farther from the meaning of the Saviour. 

If we could merit salvation by literally cutting 



236 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



off our right hand, it would infinitely compensate 
the sacrifice. If a man's eye were the source and 
seat of sin, he might well afford to pluck it out 
literally, to get rid of such an enemy. But, 
alas ! the seat of sin is deeper ; it is not so easily 
reached ; and when reached, it can neither be 
cut off nor plucked out by a physical act. It is 
so identified with the soul that it cannot be sepa- 
rated from it, except by the thorough change that 
is wrought in regeneration, and the process of 
sanctification carried on by the Almighty Spirit 
of God. But the Saviour does not refer in these 
words directly to the eradication of sin as a prin- 
ciple, but rather to acts of sin, instruments of sin, 
occasions of sin, and the indulgence of sin. 

Let not this be misunderstood ; it is not inti- 
mated that he refers solely to outward reforma- 
tion, apart from inward sanctification; but he 
refers to outward reformation as indicative of the 
sanctification of the heart, and as a reacting means 
under God, of promoting that sanctification. The 
holier men are at heart, the less sinful will be 



THE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF. 237 



their lives. The more they check, and deny 
their evil passions and desires, the more those 
passions and desires will be weakened, and the 
more nearly they will be brought to destruction. 
Accordingly when the Scriptures enjoin holy 
living, they imply the idea of holiness of heart ; 
and when they inculcate holiness, they include 
the whole duty of holy living. So, in the passage 
before us the Saviour refers primarily and directly 
to the occasions of sin, those things which lead to 
sin, but through these he refers also to the actual 
indulgence of sin. For example, when he says, 
avoid those things which lead to covetousness, he 
says, in the most emphatical way, abstain from 
covetousness. And, therefore, in this discourse, 
we may cross and re-cross at pleasure this line of 
distinction between the external and the internal, 
and speak to the same purpose about stumbling- 
blocks, and about evil passions, about any thing 
which conflicts with the everlasting interests of 
the soul. " If thy hand offend thee, cut it off." 
For convenience of arrangement, the hand, and 



238 KIRKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



foot, and eye, may each be regarded as represent- 
ing with more or less accuracy, a distinct class of 
sins and stumbling-blocks. 

The hand, as the ordinary instrument of work, 
suggests (1) that class of passions and desires 
which develop themselves into deeds of iniquity, 
together with those deeds themselves. Light has 
come into the world, but men love darkness rather 
than light, because their deeds are evil. If we, 
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the 
body we shall live. We must put off the old 
man with his deeds. For all the workers of 
iniquity shall be scattered ; the terrible sentence 
at last will be, " Depart from me ye that work 
iniquity." All those positive acts in which the 
natural man takes pleasure, contrary to the will 
of God, we must renounce. They are too nume- 
rous to be specified ; they are too various to be 
classified ; but whatever they be we must abandon 
them. That hand which works iniquity, we 
must cut it off. We all have by nature a spirit 
of rebellion against God. "The carnal mind is 



THE SEVERE DENTAL OF SELF. 239 



enmity against God." The natural man desires 
not the knowledge of his ways. He deems the 
service of the Lord an uninviting and a hard 
service. Jehovah proclaims his law amid the 
thunders and lightnings of Sinai, but notwith- 
standing his high authority, and those terrible 
sanctions, men wilfully and habitually disobey it. 
The nations rage, and the people imagine a vain 
thing • the kings of the earth set themselves and 
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord 
and against his anointed, saying, Let us break 
their bands asunder, and cast away their cords 
from us. The Lord Jehovah speaks, but men 
refuse to hearken, and pull away the shoulder, 
and stop their ears. This is his testimony con- 
cerning them ; " I have called and ye refused, I 
have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; 
but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and. 
would none of my reproof." Such is the natural 
disposition of man ; he is disobedient, self-willed, 
opposed to God, opposed to his law, and opposed 
to his gospel. 



240 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



A familiar Scriptural phrase for rebellion is the 
defiatory uplifting of the hands. This spirit of 
opposition we must renounce ; this high hand of 
rebellion, we must cut it off. Even after we be- 
come reconciled to God through his Son, our con- 
formity to his will is liable to many disturbances ; 
our spirit of submission is prone to fickleness. 
While prosperity cheers us, while the current of 
our affairs runs smoothly, while oar health is un- 
touched, while those we love are preserved, our 
love to God is placid and constant. But the 
aspect of providence changes ; some heavy afflic- 
tion comes upon us, perhaps, taking us by sur- 
prise, and up goes the hand of rebellion. We 
must cut it off ; " It is the Lord, let him do what 
seemeth him good." It was predicted concerning 
Ishmael, " His hand will be against every man, 
and every man's hand against him." It is a 
figurative mode of expressing a spirit of conten- 
tion, unfriendliness, a disposition to injure others. 
This disposition, though pre-eminently character- 
istic of Ishmael, has been by no means confined 



THE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF. 241 



to him. In a less degree it belongs to many ; in 
some degree to all. Selfishness belongs to human 
nature everywhere; and not only do men seek 
their own welfare, and endeavor to secure their 
own interests first; not only do they seek their 
own, often, to the culpable neglect of others; 
selfishness is not always satisfied even with that — 
it often prompts them to take advantage of others, 
to strengthen or distinguish, or enrich or aggran- 
dize, or in some way aid themselves at the ex- 
pense of others. It often begets a jealousy of 
others, makes light of them, throws obstacles in 
their way, defeats their plans, and devises ways 
to do them wrong, in order to accomplish its own 
ends. Nor is this form of selfishness the only 
instigator of opposition to neighbors. Sometimes 
men endeavor to injure others under the influence 
of revenge, sometimes even from malice, some- 
times from prejudice. They not unfrequently do 
injure others without any such deliberate inten- 
tion. They do it from a mere passion for gos- 
siping ; from a restless disposition to busy them- 
21 



242 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



selves about other men's matters; from a censo- 
rious spirit; from a morbid indulgence of suspi- 
cion, or from an excessive fondness for ridicule. 
All these injurious propensities we are bound to 
mortify. This hand of opposition to others, we 
must cut it off ; "As ye would that men should 
do unto you, do ye even so to them." 

The most frequent use of the hand, viz.: in 
the act of grasping, is significant of another pro- 
pensity of our nature which we must subdue. 
The love of gain is not rare; it is not unfre- 
quently the ruling passion; perhaps few are 
wholly free from it. If indulged, it leads to a 
multitude of sins; frauds, great and little, em- 
bezzlement, forgery, robbery, commercial dis- 
honesty, petty cheating. Many a young man has 
it, seized and branded even in his youth with the 
stigma of a peculator, or a forger. Many a man 
who enjoyed the confidence of the community, 
and sustained a fair reputation for integrity, has 
been hurried by it into that wholesale robbery 
which men are wont to call by some such name 



THE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF. 243 



as defalcation, and overwhelmed with lasting in- 
famy. "They who will be rich fall into tempta- 
tion and a snare, and into many foolish and hurt- 
ful lusts which drown men in destruction and 
perdition." 

Not only does it lead to many sins; in itself it 
is forbidden, it is dangerous. Christ said unto 
his hearers, "Take heed and beware of covetous- 
ness; for a man's life consisteth not in the abun- 
dance of the things which he possesseth." And 
he spake a parable unto them, saying, "The 
ground of- a certain rich man brought forth plen- 
tifully; and he thought within himself, saying, 
What shall I do? because I have no room where 
to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I 
do; I will pull down my barns and build greater; 
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my 
goods, and I w T ill say to my soul, Soul, thou hast 
much goods laid up for many years; take thine 
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said 
unto him, Thou fool ! this night thy soul shall be 
required of thee; then whose shall those things 



244 KIRKPATRICK MEMORIAL. 



be which thou hast provided? So is he that lay- 
eth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward 
God." This grasping hand — this hand of cove- 
tousness — we must cut it off; it will grasp too 
much, it will fill our bosoms with burning coals. 
If a man is engaged in any business, which from 
its very character interferes with the welfare of 
his soul, it behooves him to abandon it. Or if 
he is engaged in business so extensively, if he is 
so engrossed with it, that he cannot find time nor 
opportunity to attend properly to his spiritual 
concerns, he is wrong. His excessive devotion to 
business is a sinful form of worldliness. It is 
endangering his soul; it is hurrying him on 
through the bustle and turmoil, and shifting 
crowds of a great thoroughfare clown toward the 
region of everlasting unrest. If he is wise he 
will abandon it; "If thy hand offend thee, cut 
it off." 

"And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off." As 
the feet are the instruments of locomotion, the 
word here suggests all that class of sins which 



THE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF. 245 



consist in transgressions of the prohibitory com- 
mands of God. He has marked out certain limits 
beyond which we may not go. Those things 
which induce us to transcend these limits we must 
discard; our propensities to transgress we must 
deny; our excesses we must forego. We are 
prone to wander from the right way; that dispo- 
sition to go astray we must check and subdue. 
Many things around us present strong attractions 
to draw us away from the paths of duty; those 
things we must renounce; those attractions we 
must resist. "My son/' says Solomon, "if sin- 
ners entice thee, consent thou not. Walk not 
thou in the way with them ; refrain thy foot from 
their path." 

One great cause of the ruin of many, is their 
fondness for the company of those who devise 
mischief, and stimulate one another to evil, and 
exert a corrupting influence; that fondness we 
should check at the sacrifice of social partialities. 
If need be, even at the sacrifice of the friendship 
of those who are dangerous companions; "Go 

21 * 



246 KIRKPATBICK MEMORIAL, 



not in the way of evil men*" Perhaps they will 
"think it strange that ye run not with them to 
the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." 
Ah, this dread of contempt and scorn, this false 
sense of shame, this fear of men; how many has 
it destroyed; cast it away; it will lead you into a 
multitude of sins; it is an offence; it will prove 
your ruin. "Whoever is ashamed of Christ, of 
him will Christ be ashamed. This false pride, 
natural as it is, deny it, subdue it; whatever they 
may say, " Go not with the multitude to do evil." 

"If thy foot offend thee, cut it off." 

" And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out." 
Let us take a suggestion or two from this. The 
eye, in the style of the sacred writers, is often 
used for the understanding. Pride of reason, a 
disposition to rely upon our own judgment, and 
to make it the ultimate standard of truth and 
right, is a common characteristic of men. And it 
is both sinful and dangerous. It begets impa- 
tience of restraint ; it fortifies us against salutary 
reproofs ; it leads us to think more highly of our- 



THE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF. 247 



selves than we ought to think; it leads to neglect 
of the true standard of truth in the Scriptures. 
It often leads to perversions of the "truth, and not 
unfrequently to skepticism and infidelity. The 
admonition of the Saviour is, subdue it, reject it ; 
agreeable as it is to the depraved heart, abandon 
it. Cast down imaginations, and every high 
thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge 
of God, and bring into captivity every thought to 
the obedience of Christ. " Lean not to thine own 
understanding." 

The eye, as the instrument of vision, suggests 
among other things our undue readiness to per- 
ceive the faults of others. " And why behold est 
thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but 
considerest not the beam that is in thine own 
eye ? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let 
me pull out the mote out of thine eye ; and be- 
hold a beam is in thine own eye ?" " Judge not, 
that ye be not judged." This morbid disposition 
to judge, this censorious spirit ; let us renounce 
it, it is an evil eye, let us pluck it out. 



243 KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



The love of pleasure often proves a stumbling- 
block, especially to the young. It stimulates to 
excessive indulgence; it often prompts to the en- 
joyment of sinful amusements; it weakens the 
attractions of religion; it sadly interferes with 
heavenly-mindedness ; it connives at the deceit- 
fulness of the world ; it divorces the heart from 
the Saviour. As the bright jeweled gate- way of 
delights, as the chief inlet of pleasure to the soul, 
the eye may fitly represent this love of pleasure. 
It is prone to extravagance ; it demands our con- 
stant vigilance ; let us check it ; let us keep it by 
force if need be, within the restraints of true Chris- 
tian consistency. The undue love of pleasure, the 
love of sinful pleasure ; let us divest ourselves of 
it; let us cast it away ; " If thine eye offend thee, 
pluck it out." 

Now it is plain that the way to heaven is nar- 
row; the gate is strait. And, perhaps, some 
have been thinking already, that the sacrifices to 
be made are many and great. So they are many, 
and in the view of the natural man, they are 



THE SEVERE DENIAL OF SELF. 249 



great. The gospel does not conceal that; the 
chief peculiarity of the text is its recognition of 
the fact. If thy hand or foot lead thee into sin, 
cut it off; indispensable as it seems to your enjoy- 
ment, cut it off ; painful as the operation may be, 
cut it off. Additional intensity is given to the 
idea, by the very repetition of it; if thine eye 
offend thee, or lead thee into sin, pluck it out; 
hesitate not for the present suffering, but pluck it 
out ; though it spoil half the value of the light, 
and mar half the beauty of the world, pluck it 
out. It is not implied herein, that everything 
which we are called upon to abandon is as valu- 
able as a hand or an eye, — nor that every sacri- 
fice which we are called upon to make will be as 
painful as amputation ; but it is taught that if 
they were we would still be called upon to bear 
the self-denial. It is taught that whatever self- 
denial may be required, more or less, we are not 
to shrink from it ; that we are to part with our 
sins and stumbling-blocks, however we may de- 
light in them, by nature, however closely they 



250 KIRK PA TRICK MEMORIAL. 

may be connected with our evil hearts. Now, if 
there be something repulsive about this, we must 
remember that this surgery is for the saving of 
life. Who would not rather lose a limb, if it 
were necessary, than his life ? " It is better for 
thee," in a spiritual sense, to enter half into 
heaven than to go with the whole body into 
hell 

These unholy things, we shall not need in 
heaven 

They will do us no good in the world of 
woe 



VIII. 

JjESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 
And did all eat the same spiritual meat. 1 Corinthians x. 3. 

"POR a purpose which will be brought to view 
in the sequel, the Apostle reminds the Corin- 
thians of several prominent particulars in the 
remarkable history of the ancient Israelites. 
" Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should 
be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under 
the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and 
were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in 
the sea ; and did all eat the same spiritual meat." 
In an early stage of our language the word meat 
was used in a much more general sense than that 
to which it is now usually limited ; like the word 
which it is here employed to translate it meant 
food in general. There can be no doubt that the 
meat here spoken of was the manna with which 

251 



252 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



the children of Israel were fed in the wilderness. 
Why it is ^called spiritual meat is not so easily 
determined ; as it was designed for the nourish- 
ment of the body, we must depart at once from 
the ordinary meaning of the word spiritual. Some 
have understood it to mean refined, in opposition 
to gross ; others have supposed it to be so called 
because it typified spiritual things ; others, because 
it was miraculously bestowed immediately from 
God, without the intervention of physical agen- 
cies. " Spiritual" has various phases of meaning. 
It is used in opposition to physical, to carnal, to 
temporal ; it is used to denote that which belongs 
to the spirit of man, or that which proceeds 
directly from the Spirit of God. This last gene- 
ral idea seems to have been the one which led the 
Apostle to call the manna spiritual meat. 

It may not be amiss, here, to refresh our me- 
mories concerning the manna itself, and the his- 
torical circumstances of its first appearance. When 
the provisions which the children of Israel had 
brought from the land of Egypt were consumed, 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 253 



they at once became apprehensive of starvation, 
and began to murmur. The Lord did not, at 
that time, punish them for their sinful distrust 
and complaints, but promised them, through 
Moses, a speedy supply of their wants. The next 
morning, "when the dew was gone up, behold, 
upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small 
round thing, small as the hoar-frost upon the 
ground/' There was a great profusion of these 
whitish particles which are compared to coriander 
seeds, and to pearls. "And when the children 
of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is 
manna, for they knew not what it was." Or, 
they said one to another, " man hu," " what is 
it?" That question, doubtless, ran throughout 
the camp, man hu f man hu f and that seems to 
have been the origin of the name manna. Or 
the words " man hu," may be translated " this is 
a portion." The Lord had previously said unto 
them, " I will rain bread for you, and the people 
shall go out and gather a certain rate every day." 
Then when they saw it as they knew no specific 

22 



254 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



name for it, they naturally exclaimed "this is a 
portion/' and hence it was called manna, that 
which is given in prescribed portions. 

In some parts of Arabia, and especially in the 
neighborhood of Mount Sinai, there is a natural 
substance, answering in some respects to the de- 
scription which Moses has given of manna. 
Indeed, it is called manna, undoubtedly on account 
of that resemblance. It is a gum which oozes 
from a kind of tamarisk tree during the month 
of June. Modern rationalists have endeavored to 
show, from that, that there was no miracle in the 
case, and that the Israelites merely collected the 
natural production of the region in which they 
were sojourning. But it may be answered first, 
that the natural manna is essentially different, in 
several particulars, from that which fell upon the 
camp of Israel. And secondly, supposing them 
to have been precisely the same, it could not have 
been less than a miracle that furnished it in such 
enormous quantities ; " for the entire produce of 
manna found in the whole peninsula of Arabia in 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 255 

a year would not be equal to a thousandth part of 
what was necessary to supply the host of Israel 
for one day ; w and if all the tamarisk trees in the 
world had been gathered together there they 
would not have furnished manna enough for the 
tenth part of the multitude, even while the yield 
continued, and that would have been only one 
month in the year. 

The partial resemblance between the natural 
and miraculous manna is not wholly uninstruc- 
tive. It is a confirmation of the miracle ; it is in 
accordance with what we know of the ways of 
God. His miracles were not designed to startle 
and astonish men, but partly to convince them of 
his wisdom and power, and to show that he who 
wrought them was at the same time the God of 
nature. Hence there is in most of his miracles a 
combination of the natural and supernatural, the 
familiar and the extraordinary, which makes 
them more convincing than if they were wholly 
at variance with what we are accustomed to call 
nature. So when Christ came to feed the hungry 



256 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



multitudes who had gathered around him, he did 
not create some unknown or rare article of food, 
but inquired for what they had already, and in- 
creased their own loaves and fishes to an adequate 
supply. There was wisdom in that plan. The 
effect was doubtless greater and better than if there 
had been a much wider distinction apparent be- 
tween the natural and the miraculous. So in the 
case before us, the force of the miracle is by no 
means diminished, but rather increased, by the 
fact that a substance in some respects similar to 
the manna is known to have existed, in a small 
quantity, in the same region. 

There are two classes of lessons which we may 
learn from the manna in connection with its his- 
torical circumstances. The former, it teaches 
simply by way of illustration, in regard to the 
interests of the present life ; the latter it teaches 
by way of typical signification, in regard to the 
higher interests of the soul. Let me simply 
allude to some of the former, and then dwell 
chiefly upon the latter. 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 257 



In the eighth chapter of 2d Corinthians, Paul 
refers to the distribution of the manna to enforce 
the duty of Christian liberality. " For I mean 
not," said he, " that other men be eased and ye 
burdened; but by an equality, that now at this 
time your abundance may be a supply for their 
wants, that their abundance also may be a supply 
for your want ; that there may be equality ; as it 
is written, He that had gathered much had no- 
thing over, and he that had gathered little had no 
lack." In that disposal of the manna by which 
wasteful excess was avoided on the one hand, and 
suffering on the other, and the wants of all were 
supplied, the Apostle perceived a plain lesson of 
Christian charity. Lest we should overlook it, he 
has pointed it out to us, and we shall do well to 
reduce it to judicious practice. If under the 
favor of Heaven, we have gathered much, let us 
not turn away with cold hearts and closed hands, 
from those who, in the providence of God, have 
been able to gather but little and are suffering 
from want. 

22 * 



258 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



The giving of the manna may be regarded as 
illustrative of our dependence upon God for the 
supply of our temporal wants. Even those who 
acknowledge their dependence upon God for 
spiritual good, are prone to attribute their physi- 
cal support to their own industry and prudence. 
Doubtless many of the children of Israel mani- 
fested the same self-confidence, — but at last their 
ordinary resources failed, and their self-trust was 
put to shame by the very mode of their deliverance. 
By thus teaching them, God has taught us confi- 
dently and gratefully to acknowledge our depend- 
ence upon him for temporal support, in prosperity 
as well as in adversity ; to receive our worldly 
possessions as almoners upon his bounty, even 
though they do not come immediately from 
heaven, and to use them as his stewards. 

Again, the manna became a mass of living 
corruption when it was unnecessarily hoarded up ; 
we need not look to that fact for any authorita- 
tive teaching, but we may see in it an illustration 
of the folly of heaping up possessions, with an 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 259 



avaricious spirit, ivhich instead of answering 
profitable uses, to the glory of God, will engender 
temptations and sorrows. Such instructions may 
be legitimately drawn from the occurrence in 
question considered as a part of Scripture history. 

But considered as a part of the preparatory dis- 
pensation it was intended to teach lessons of a 
higher kind, and not merely to illustrate, but to 
typify more specific Gospel truths. On one occa- 
sion when the Jews were plying Jesus for some 
special sign, they enforced their plea by this 
reference, — "Our fathers did eat manna in the 
desert, as it is written he gave them bread from 
heaven to eat." Instead of complying with their 
unreasonable request for a sign, the Saviour 
seized that opportunity to instruct them in regard 
to the significancy of the event to which they had 
alluded. He replied, " Moses gave you not that 
bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the 
true bread from heaven. For the bread of God 
is he who cometh down from heaven and giveth 
life unto the world. " The meaning of which is 



260 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



manifestly this ; that was not the true spiritual 
bread from heaven, it was only a type of that ; it 
prefigured me; "I am the bread of life." The 
history of the giving and receiving of the manna 
assumes a new importance when we come to re- 
gard it as a type of Christ. With this view of it, 
let us select a few points of instruction. 

I. The manna was in a peculiar sense, and most 
manifestly the gift of God. It was the product 
of no sanctioned means, or blessed endeavors upon 
the part of the needy. " When the dew fell 
upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon 
it." It came directly from the bountiful hand of 
Him who controls the operations of nature. In 
this it was fitly representative. of Christ. As the 
Saviour, he is the gift of God, completely out of 
analogy with all his ordinary bestowments. He 
is emphatically " the gift by grace." They who 
would be saved must receive him as such. 
Imagine a self-willed company of Israelites 
ploughing the sterile soil of the desert, and sow- 
ing the dust to raise manna. There is a fit repre- 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 



261 



sentation of sinners laboring to obtain salvation 
without accepting Christ ; upon the gracious terms 
of the gospel. Would the one have been pitiably 
absurd and futile? How then does the other 
appear? The bread of life comes down from 
heaven; no earthly toil, no natural process can 
produce it. Are there any who reject it, or 
hesitate to accept it because it is a gift, placing 
the stigma of helplessness upon human nature, 
and of worthlessness upon human merits ? Let 
them picture to themselves a high-minded Israel- 
ite disdaining to stoop and pick up the manna 
because it did not grow upon trees which he 
himself had planted and nurtured. Let them 
follow the wandering host, till they stumble over 
the proud man's bleaching bones, lying where star- 
vation left them. They who are saved are saved 
by grace. Let the righteous sing for ever, " Thanks 
be unto God for his unspeakable gift." Let not 
our gratitude be checked by a single emotion of 
self-complacency; the praise belongs unto God. 
Give unto him the glory due unto his name. 



262 



KIRKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



II. The manna was abundant as well as free. 
There was enough for all ; even he who had gath- 
ered least had no lack. So is it with the bread 
of life ; the grace of God in Christ is an ample 
supply for all the wants of all sinners. In him 
personally dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead ; 
in his work were included all the requisites to 
complete and universal redemption. AYe know 
not that his sacrifice with any abatement, or any 
less suffering would have sufficed for the salvation 
of a single sinner ; but this we know, that the 
sacrifice was adequate for all ; — that Christ as he 
is, " is able to save to the uttermost, all that come 
unto God through him." Convicted sinners, 
while they assent to this, are sometimes disposed 
to modify their assent in regard to their own case. 
They say "Yes, he is able to save all, but I can- 
not believe that he is willing to save me." 

The point of analogy we are now considering 
is the abundance of the supply. It is adequate 
for every case and every peculiarity of destitu- 
tion, The bread of life is inexhaustible. There 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 



263 



is a mystery here, a blessed, glorious mystery ; it 
is enough for us to know that each of us may re- 
ceive Christ, and all the blessings that attend 
him, and yet the bread of life will be left undi- 
minished for other famishing souls, now and 
hereafter. 

III. The manna scattered in profusion round 
about the camps was within the reach of all. So 
is the bread of life. Suppose one of the Israelites 
had died of starvation while his fellows were 
living luxuriantly upon the heaven-sent food, 
free alike to all ; how much sympathy for him 
could you awaken in your heart ? He would not 
receive the means of sustenance that lay at his 
feet, and so he died ; he was to be blamed more 
than pitied, you would say. Therefore, thou art 
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that 
judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou 
condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest 
the same thing. The bread of life is just as really 
within the reach of each of us as the manna was 
within their reach. If we reject it, or neglect it ; 



264 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



if we do not want it, and will not have it, then 
we shall die with the stifling consciousness of 
self-destruction, and our only complaints at last 
will be self-reproaches. 

IV. Although the manna was within the reach 
of all, still it was worthless for their purposes 
until it was voluntarily received and appropriated. 
Jehovah might have sustained them by his im- 
mediate agency ; it would have required no greater 
expenditure of power to sustain them without 
food, than to supply food by a miracle. He chose 
the latter ; it was more in accordance with the 
asual economy of his works, and it served to 
teach a valuable lesson in connection with the 
type of Christ. The bread of life must be volun- 
tarily received and appropriated ; we must accept 
and live upon Christ by faith. How long could 
the Israelites have nourished and sustained them- 
selves by gazing at and admiring the manna as it 
lay like pearls sprinkled on the ground ? Just 
long enough to starve. Think what you may of 
Christ ; treat him as you may ; it will be of no 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 265 



avail, unless you receive him by an appropriating 
faith as the only bread of life. 

V. The manna was given daily. There must 
needs have been a constant exercise of faith in the 
providence of God. The people were left to be- 
lieve, from day to day, that Jehovah would con- 
tinue to renew the supply as long as it was needed. 
They were left to look for it with a trusting spirit. 
So the child of God must look for new measures 
of spiritual nourishment and strength day by day. 
He can lay up no supply of grace for the future. 
With a spiritual, as well as a physical reference, 
he must use this seasonable prayer, "Give me 
this day my daily bread/ If they attempted to 
hoard up manna for the morrow, their store soon 
became a mass of corruption; and so if the 
Christian abandon the divinely-appointed method 
of continual seeking for new supplies ; if he 
think that in his past or present experiences there 
is a superabundance of nourishment, and endeavor 
to live, for awhile, upon that, he will soon find 
that his very mercies in their fulness have be- 

23 



266 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



come sources of trouble, and temptation and 
crimination. Peter found it so ; he was satisfied 
with the strength he had acquired ; he deemed it 
sufficient to meet his future trials, and confidently 
exclaimed " Though all men forsake thee, yet will 
not I but, afterwards, he found that the store 
of strength upon which he had reckoned not only 
failed, but through his undue reliance upon it, 
even proved to have been the means of aggravat- 
ing his sin. O, let us never imagine that we have 
grace enough for another day, but ever seek new 
supplies as new wants repeatedly occur. 

That was not a mere arbitrary arrangement by 
which the manna was bestowed in daily portions. 
It was full of typical significance. The true 
bread of life was to be sought in daily portions 
for daily necessities. Alas, for those who fail to 
apply the instruction ! They will find sad days 
of hungering and weakness ! 

Such are the points of analogy between the 
typical food of the Israelites and the true bread that 
cometh down from heaven. But a just view of 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 267 



the comparison requires, at least, an additional 
glance at the vast diversities, between the type 
and the antitype. The one was for the body, 
and the other for the soul ; the one for a brief 
sojourn in the wilderness, the other for all time 
and eternity ; the one was confined to a few, the 
other is offered to the world; the one was to 
maintain and prolong life, the other to impart it ; 
the life maintained by the one was a mere natural 
life, that imparted by the other is spiritual and 
eternal life. Said Christ, (i Your fathers did "eat 
manna in the wilderness, and are dead ; this is 
the bread which cometh down from heaven, that 
a man may eat thereof and not die." Let us 
confine our attention, for a moment, to this one 
phase of the contrast. It is particularly suggested 
by the connection in which we find the text. 
The enjoyment of the manna is here classed among 
the external advantages and distinctions of the 
ancient Jews; the inadequacy of those outward 
advantages alone, for the purposes of salvation, is 
what the Apostle aims to set before us. u More- 



268 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



over, brethren, I would not that ye should be 
ignorant how that all our fathers were under the 
cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were 
ail baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the 
sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; 
and did all drink the same spiritual drink : (for 
they drank of that spiritual Kock that followed 
them : and that Rock was Christ.) But with 
many of them God was not well pleased : for they 
were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these 
things were our examples, to the intent we should 
not lust after evil things, as they also lusted." 
The sum and substance of those admonitions, the 
great lesson to be learned from those examples, is 
that it is dangerous, it is fatal to rely upon mere 
external privileges, however numerous and distin- 
guished. In addition to all their other peculiar 
favors, they were fed with that bread from heaven 
which was the type of the blessed Saviour ; for 
those who rested there, it was all of no avail. 
And now, since the type has been fulfilled, it is 
no less true, that the outward privileges of the 



LESSONS FROM THE MANNA. 269 



Christian dispensation, with all their number and 
magnitude, are in themselves of no avail. Gos- 
pel hearers are in danger of this false trust. . . . 

Professing Christians have need to take ad- 
vantage of the same admonitions. " Let him that 
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." We 
may eat the bread of the sacrament and yet share 
the fate of the children of Israel, against whom 
the Apostle warns us. We must feed by faith 
upon the Son of God. It is an inward exercise. 
Let us give diligence to assure ourselves that we 
are living upon this spiritual participation of the 
true bread of life. 

And, in regard to others, let us not rest satis- 
fied because they have free access to the means of 

grace. . . . 
23* 



IX. 

THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC Pit AY EH. 
What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee ? Luke xviii. 41. 

rilHESE are the words of the Lord Jesus. Then, 
whether we regard him as divine, or only as 
the commissioned, faithful, and unerring repre- 
sentative of God, sent to manifest his character, 
this may be understood as the language of God. 
Or, more definitely, it may and must be under- 
stood as characteristic of the compassion and 
mercy of God. The question was addressed to a 
suppliant. It was not the expression of a sud- 
den and temporary emotion of pity, but was a 
manifestation of that sympathizing and compas- 
sionate spirit which belonged to the very nature, 
and pervaded the whole life of the Saviour. We 
need not regard it, therefore, by any means, as 

confined to the circumstances in which it was ut- 
270 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER. 271 



tered. Here speaks the tender mercy of God;— 
the unfailing and unchanging mercy of God, for 
all ages, and for all persons. The poor blind 
man at Jericho was a sort of type of humanity. 
He is lost to view in the midst of the poverty- 
stricken, helpless, groping race. When Christ 
spoke to him, God in Christ was speaking to us 
all, — and this address we may appropriate with- 
out presumption, as the language of our heavenly 
Father to each of us, " What wilt thou that I 
shall do unto thee?" 

In its most general sense, this is an invitation 
to pray. As such, it opens before us a theme too 
vast to be explored in a few minutes, at which we 
shall simply glance before proceeding to examine 
the peculiar and most striking feature of the text. 
In this heavenly invitation to pray, there is im- 
plied : 

First, our dependence upon God. A sense of 
dependence belongs to the very nature of man as 
a self-conscious creature. Fellow-mortal,— are you 
accustomed to deem yourself independent? Then 



272 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



take care of yourself; — supply your own wants; 
hold your circumstances at your own disposal; 
carry out your own plans ; baffle disappointment ; 
never fail ; replenish the wasting fountain of your 
life ; never die ; — or if you must die, — then, when 
your earthly instruments of support are taken 
away, when your grasp is wrested from the things 
of sense, then buoy up your naked spirit in the 
boundless ocean of immaterial existence. You 
cannot do all this, — you feel that you cannot. 

One great misery of the heathen is this ; — that 
while he feels his dependence, and cannot banish 
that feeling, yet he knows not upon what, or upon 
whom, he must depend. One of the most pre- 
cious felicities of our lot is that we know upon 
whom we must depend. And yet that would be 
but little more of a blessing than a calamity, if, 
with all our felt dependence, we could not ap- 
proach nor address him with confidence ; — or, if 
with all his control over us and our interests, he 
were known to us only as some distant personifi- 
cation of fate. 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER. 273 

Secondly. There is implied a willingness upon 
the part of God to secure our welfare. An unin- 
telligent sense of dependence is, in itself, hum- 
bling and distressing ; but a sense of dependence 
upon the eternal God is ennobling to a creature 
and a sense of dependence upon our heavenly 
Father is soothing and cheering to a filial spirit. 
He is kind, he is merciful, he is gracious, he is 
willing to make our true and highest interests se- 
cure. The Bible is fraught with assurances of 
this, and God is faithful and true. Then, let it 
be said that we are helpless creatures, incapable 
of self-support ; be it so, — yet our minds are re- 
lieved from tprturing uncertainty, because we 
know Him in whom we live and move and have 
our being ; and we may be as effectually relieved 
from fear as from uncertainty, because we know 
that he is our Father, as truly as our God. 

But thirdly ; this is by no means the limit of 
our privilege ; these familiar thoughts have been 
suggested rather to prepare us for the contempla- 
tion of our highest privilege. We are permitted 



274 KXliRPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



to draw near to his throne of grace, and implore 
his blessings ; we are permitted to present our 
wants and ask for their supply. This, in itself, 
apart from its results, is the highest honor which 
a mortal can enjoy. For, let us remember, it is 
not merely to approach God, it is not merely to 
address him ; it is not merely to approach and ad- 
dress him by permission and with acceptance ; but 
it is confidently to ask favors at his hand. In 
this there is implied a much closer intimacy. In 
this there is implied a much greater condescension 
upon the part of God, and consequently much 
greater distinction upon our part ; yea, in this there 
is implied, if it may be so expressed without ir- 
reverence, a kind of influence exerted by us upon 
the ever-blessed Father of mercies. True, God is 
unchangeable ; his purposes are no less so than his 
nature ; our petitions can not avail to alter the 
determinations of his will. No matter; let us 
arrest that captious thought ; we will not be led 
away by the questionings of half-skeptical reason 
to discuss the doctrine of decrees. 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER. 275 

The point for consideration now is simply the 
honor of the suppliant. God invites ns to pray, 
he is sincere. The invitation is not mockery nor 
irony. To imagine that prayer is an unmeaning 
or useless ceremony is virtually to charge God 
with the cruelty of heaping sarcasm upon the 
needy and wretched. Since he is sincere prayer 
must be effectual. Therefore confining our atten- 
tion to the suppliant, we are brought right upon 
the conclusion that he is blessed with the same 
honor, the same in substance, as if his petitions 
did, in the most literal sense, exert a controlling 
influence upon the Dispenser of all good. 

This leads me to remark, in the same general 
way, upon the benefit of prayer. One simple 
proof that it is of real advantage has already 
been suggested. It is that God has invited us to 
pray, and therefore prayer is effectual, because 
God cannot be the author of deception. No train 
of argumentation could add certainty or stability 
to that conclusion. But we are not left to rely 
upon that infallible inference alone ; we may 



276 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



amass around it, in adamantine combination, 
promise upon promise, all direct, unmistakable, 
and confirmed by the seal of eternal truth. 

How strange and dishonoring to God, that 
creatures, who are so entirely dependent, should 
live so much as if they were self-dependent ! God 
graciously asks " What wilt thou that I shall do 
unto thee ?" and they virtually answer, " We will 
provide for ourselves." How strange and dis- 
honoring to God, that needy creatures who are so 
kindly invited to present their wants before the 
throne of grace, should treat that privilege with 
scorn or cold neglect ! God graciously asks them 
" What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" and 
they virtually answer, "It makes no difference, 
we will take what we can get, without thanks- 
giving, — and do without that which we cannot 
get without asking." This is no caricature; it 
may be fairly said of those who will not pray, 
even when the Hearer of prayer invites them. 

But let us pass from the general privilege and 
duty of prayer, to a particular characteristic of 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER. 277 



prayer suggested by the text. We are not only 
invited to pray, but we are invited to specify our 
wants. " What wilt thou that I shall do unto 
thee?" It is a remark frequently made, and 
with much justice, concerning the prayers which 
we are accustomed to offer in public, — that they 
are made up too largely of generalities. It might 
be said, often, of those which we do not offer in 
public. Particularly of petition, and thanksgiv- 
ing, and confession is a most desirable feature of 
prayer. Indeed the proper design of prayer is 
not fully answered without it. It is supposed to 
be the expression of our wants, — and when men 
express their wants naturally, they express them 
definitely. When we desire a favor from a friend 
we do not go and simply ask him to accommo- 
date us, but we tell him precisely what we want, 
we are specific ; so we should be in our supplica- 
tions to God. So we shall be if we are sincere 
and earnest, — except in so far as we are under 
the influence of bad habits of prayer acquired in 
times of coldness and indifference ; — habits from 

24 



278 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



which it will be well if the ardor of genuine, 
lively emotion release us. If we offer the same 
prayer in different states of mind, the conclusion 
is inevitable that our prayers do not express oui 
state of mind, as they ought, — and as they will, 
if we are honest and earnest, and untrammelled 
by burdensome forms. 

It is a valid argument— against prescribed 
forms of prayer that they do not meet with suffi- 
cient precision, the peculiarities and changes of 
our conditions and wants ; but the same becomes 
an argument of equal force, against extempora- 
neous prayers, when they are habitually the same 
in all circumstances. We ought to be specific in 
our prayers ; not only when we meet together to 
pray for some distinctly specified object, but in 
our more private and ordinary supplications. If 
this is unimportant, then we might make one pe- 
tition answer for ourselves, and one more for all 
the race besides, and the business of prayer would 
soon be completed. We might simply ask the 
Lord to grant us all needed good for this life and 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER. 279 



the life to come, and to adapt his mercies to the 
wants of all classes of men, and rest satisfied with 
that. Bnt who does not feel that more is re- 
quired. The very dissatisfaction that we feel in 
regard to grouping our desires under a few such 
comprehensive requests, is an acknowledgement 
of the importance of this rule, — that we should 
be definite in our petitions. " What wilt thou 
that I should do unto thee?" 

If we have special wants, let us give them spe- 
cial mention. Nothing is detracted from the im- 
portance of this rule by the fact that God is per- 
fectly acquainted with all our peculiar circum- 
stances and wants. This objection would lie 
equally against all prayer. If he is acquainted 
with our wants in particular, so he is acquainted 
with them in general. Why then express our 
wants in comprehensive terms, if not in detail? 
The Saviour well knew the condition of the blind 
beggar who sat by the way-side, and he intended 
to go and give him relief, but he did not see fit 
to do so until the sufferer nad prayed. The blind 



280 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



man heard the noise of the multitude passing by, 
and asked what it meant, and they told him that 
Jesus of Nazareth was passing, and then he be- 
gan to cry out, — " Jesus, thou Son of David, have 
mercy on me Jesus well knew what he needed, 
and what he sought, but he demanded more than 
such an indefinite petition. Instead of granting 
the boon at once, he asked him as though he had 
been wholly ignorant, "What wilt thou that I 
shall do unto thee?" The application of this has 
been anticipated; the lesson is that of specific 
prayer. 

These considerations may serve to exhibit in a 
clearer light the advantages of secret prayer. In 
the closet that pointed question of the text can be 
more fully and freely answered than in the pre- 
sence of others, however intimate. In the closet, 
there can be made explicit confessions of particu- 
lar sins, which in the presence of others would be 
timidly hidden in the bosom of some general ac- 
knowledgement. There free utterance can be 
given to anxieties and fears which would be pent 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER. 281 

up by the restraints of any society. There we 
can pour forth, through the simple forms of un- 
affected supplication, peculiar wants and cherished 
desires, which in the presence of others would be 
lost to view in some comprehensive phrase, or 
vain repetitions. There, in short, there is a far 
more intimate, and satisfactory, and profitable 
communion between the suppliant spirit and the 
Hearer of prayer. Great indeed is the loss they 
suffer who neglect frequent, secret prayer, however 
often or long, or earnestly they may pray in the 
family or social circle ; there they cannot be free 
or minute enough to secure the greatest good. 
"What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" 
asks the Saviour. To answer to the best advan- 
tage, we must tell him secretly, and there tell 
him all. 

There is expressed in these words of the Saviour 
a sublime consciousness of power and willingness 
to meet the requirements of any and every case. 
In this view, it is replete with consolation. " The 
heart knoweth its own bitterness." Every man 

24 * 



282 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



has his own peculiarities of character and condi- 
tion ; and it is in regard to them that he is always 
most solicitous. The question with him is not 
chiefly whether there is an adequate supply for the 
wants which are common to all, but whether any 
provision has been made for the particular exi- 
gency of his own case. All his ordinary wants 
combined sink into insignificance often, in com- 
parison with some one pressing necessity; and 
then it matters little what abundance of other 
blessings may be accessible, so long as that indis- 
pensable one is beyond his reach. What great 
difference did it make to the blind wayfarer at 
Jericho, how skilfully Jesus of Nazareth could 
unstop the ears of the deaf, or how he could give 
faculties of speech to the dumb, or how he could 
raise the dead? He was not dead, nor dumb, 
nor deaf, but he was blind. The object of his 
longing was sight, he wanted some one who could 
open his eyes, and pour light into the dark 
chambers of his soul ; nothing else would have 
sufficed. If they had made him king, he would 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER. 283 



still have been blind. What was any doer of 
mighty deeds to him, unless he could dissipate 
the suffocating darkness that had not only gath- 
ered densely around him, but had gone down into 
the very depths of his being ? " "What wilt thou 
that I should do unto thee," said Jesus, and out 
of the excessive abundance of his heart, he 
abruptly answered, " Lord that I may receive my 
sight." 

An Arab had lost his way in the desert and was 
in danger of dying from hunger and thirst. 
After wandering long, he found one of the 
cisterns or water-pits out of which the pilgrims 
water their camels, and found a little leathern sack 
lying near it upon the sands. " God be praised," 
said he, as he raised it up, and felt of it ; " these 
are certainly dates or nuts, how I will quicken 
and refresh myself with these!" In this sweet 
hope he quickly opened the sack, saw what it 
contained, and then cried out with the utmost 
sadness, " Alas, it is nothing but pearls !" Have 
not your ardent longings been disappointed, 



284 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



many a time, in some way similar to that ? Have 
you not some insatiable hungerings in the midst 
of the greatest abundance ? Have you not some 
individual wants which pearls cannot satisfy, 
which the world cannot satisfy, which all the quick- 
eyed ingenuity, and faithful devotion of earthly 
friendship leave empty still? Even when our 
wants are but the common wants of humanity, 
yet we know our own so much more fully, and 
we feel them so much more sensibly, that they 
seem to be peculiar. Is there not, then a large 
store of consolation in this pointed question of 
the Saviour ? It is like saying to each of us, " If 
you have some special desire ; if you are giving 
way before the pressure of some particular neces- 
sity, if some peculiar emergency has overtaken 
you, come unto me ; what wilt thou that I shall 
do unto thee ?" 

Let us regard this question as addressed to each 
of us. If we ask bread he will not give us a 
stone. If, indeed, under some worldly delusion, 
we ask a stone, he may give us bread ; if we be 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PRAYER. 285 



deceived about our wants, he may, indeed, disap- 
point us, but by that very disappointment he will 
mercifully correct our error. But if we go to 
him with our real wants, whatever they may be, 
we shall find him able and willing to supply 
them. Here, however, we must not forget that 
the Lord's compassion * does not overrule his 
wisdom ; that his condescension does not take the 
place of his sovereignty. Hence it follows that 
this question is to be subjected to some modifica- 
tion in our understanding of it. The Lord has 
no -where promised to make any human will 
the standard of his providential government. 
He has no where promised directly, nor by im- 
plication, to grant us every temporal good, real or 
imaginary, which we are disposed to ask. When 
he said to the blind man, " What wilt thou that 1 
shall do unto thee ?" he did not thereby pledge 
himself to comply with his request, whatever it 
might be, or however it might be presented. 
Suppose the man had simply asked for alms, the 
Saviour might, without insincerity, have refused 



286 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



him. His omniscience might have seen an error 
in that, and he might according to his sovereign 
choice, have passed by and left him as he was, or 
have transcended his request by enriching him 
still with the blessing of sight. We must not 
only ask aright, we must not only ask in sincerity, 
and in earnestness, and in faith, but we must ask 
for things agreeable to his will. 

There is a two-fold distinction here between 
temporal and spiritual things. (1.) In regard to 
temporal things we cannot know in advance, what 
is the will of God. It may be his will that we 
shall suffer adversity, or enjoy prosperity, that we 
shall lose or that we shall gain, etc. ... There- 
fore our prayers for temporal good must be 
brought within narrow limits, and subjected 
to strict restraints. But in regard to spiritual 
things the case is somewhat different; God 
will have all men to pray. What wilt thou, 
fellow-sinner, that he should do for thee? 
(2.) God gives many temporal blessings with- 
out prayer. He sends the rain. . . . Not so 



THE DUTY OF SPECIFIC PBAYEB. 287 



with spiritual good. . . . He saves no man, till he 
desires it and seeks it. . . . 

He is willing to save, but we must ask him. 

The prayer of the blind man did not make 
Jesus willing to give sight, for the willingness 
preceded the request. But the prayer secured the 
gift of sight. 

To be let alone, when Jesus is passing by! 
Think what that would be ! . . . 



X. 

THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. Ps. xvii. 15. 

TT is a well-established rule in the interpreta- 
tion of the word of God, — that the sense of 
Scripture, is in general, one — and that our ob- 
ject, in interpreting any passage, should be to 
bring out the very thought which the sacred writer 
intended to express. This is a canon of funda- 
mental importance ; the neglect or abuse of it has 
led to a multitude of extravagancies, and perver- 
sions, and vagaries. Whenever men depart from 
it, in their pretended explanations of the word of 
God, they assume the bold and dangerous pre- 
rogative of assigning whatever meaning they 
please to " the words which the Holy Ghost teach- 
eth." But while it is true that every passage has 
one specific meaning, and strictly speaking, only 

288 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 



289 



one ; and while it is true that it is the business 
of the professed interpreter to find that one mean- 
ing, and not to devise others ; still, it is not only 
allowable, but may be highly profitable, to make 
various applications of that meaning, and to fol- 
low out the ideas which are merely suggested by 
it ; provided we do not go beyond the analogy of 
Scripture, and provided we confine ourselves to 
truths which are elsewhere taught, and conclu- 
sions elsewhere reached by inspired reasoning. 

It is designed to make use of the text before 
us upon this general principle. The ambiguity 
of construction in the original, as well as in the 
translation, is such as to leave us in some uncer- 
tainty concerning the precise idea which the 
Psalmist intended to express. This affords no 
ground of objection or suspicion as to the ade- 
quacy of inspiration, nor should it start a momen- 
tary tremor in our confidence, because either of 
the senses in which the words may be understood 
is natural, consistent with other truths, and highly 
valuable. Besides, this very ambiguity furnishes 

25 



290 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



an occasion of giving greater variety to our medi- 
tations, 

I. We may read the text in this way ; " When 
I awake, I shall be satisfied with thy likeness." 
This word, "likeness/ 7 does not necessarily 
mean abstract resemblance. It is the same word 
which is used in the law, — 'Thou shalt not make 
unto thee any graven image, nor any likeness of 
anything that is in the heaven above or that is in 
the earth beneath/' It signifies the visible form, 
the image, — the appearance. When I awake, I 
shall be satisfied with thine appearance. This re- 
fers us to the manifestations of God. There are 
clear manifestations of God which are just as ac- 
cessible and perceptible to the unconverted as to 
the Christian. Any man who is surrounded with 
the light of the Gospel, can behold in the works 
of creation, on every hand, displays of Divine 
power, and wisdom, and goodness. Any man, who 
reads the word of God, can find represented there 
those attributes which characterize Jehovah as a 
moral Being, as the central object of all true re- 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 291 



ligion. Any man, who traces the character of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, can discover, in all its fea- 
tures of unblemished loveliness, the glory of the 
Godhead. Still, in all these, the unregenerate see 
but little. What is dim and vague to them is 
clear and sun-bright to the enlightened believer. 
He may be unskilled in natural science; he 
may know but little about the wonders of the 
heavens : the technicalities of philosophy may be 
unknown or unmeaning to him ; he may know 
but little of the multitudinous phenomena which 
arrange themselves in accordance with the sub- 
lime laws of the universe ; he may be acquainted 
with only those instances of wise formation, pro- 
vision, and adaptation which have fallen within 
the range of his own observation, and yet he may 
be far better pleased and more profited by the ap- 
pearance of God in the world than the most suc- 
cessful votary of science, who is destitute of his 
spiritual vision. And so, although he may have 
but little critical knowledge, and no more than an 
ordinary faculty of discovering character in truth- 



292 KIEKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



ful biography, yet he may see far more of the 
glory of God in his word and in his Son than the 
ripest scholar, and the acutest discerner, whose 
eyes are still covered by the film of natural de- 
pravity. While the one looks at the Bible only 
as a remarkable book, the other gazes at it 
as a luminous revelation of Deity. While the 
one glances at God manifest in the flesh, and turns 
away, with ill-concealed indifference, as from "a 
root out of dry ground without form or comeli- 
ness/' the other, with reverential admiration, 
gazes upon him as " the chief among ten thou- 
sand, and altogether lovely. 7 ' While the one may 
indeed be said to have only indistinct imagina- 
tions as incorrect as they are indistinct, — the other 
has views of him, actual and clear. While the 
one either ignores His existence, and is insanely 
content with a blind ignorance, — or vainly specu- 
lates about His undiscoverable nature, and with 
a complaining spirit, wonders at His hidden ma- 
jesty, — the other is satisfied with his appearance. 
But those which have been alluded to are, by 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 293 



no means, the only manifestations of God. He 
presents himself to our view in the dispensations 
of Providence. There the wicked, perhaps do 
not see him, unless it be' in some time of sore 
trouble, and then he seems to stand before them 
as a stern ruler with the lifted rod of justice, and 
the stern frown of righteous indignation, and 
from that sight they shrink away with trembling 
dread, or muttered displeasure. The true believer 
never loses sight of Him in the sphere of provi- 
dence. In prosperity he sees Him smile and re- 
joices ; in adversity he peers through the gloom 
and finds that even in his aspect of parental 
severity there is enough of the warm light of 
compassion first to beautify, and then to dry up 
his tears ; and distinguishing between the fearful 
glances of judicial anger, and the reproving gaze 
of fatherly displeasure, he is still satisfied with his 
appearance. 

There is still another sense in which God in 
Christ is visible to the Christian. The aggregate 

of spiritual blessings on earth is expressed by the 

25 * 



294 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



Saviour as a manifestation of himself. In that 
cheering valedictory address to his disciples, by 
which he quieted the grief he had excited by the 
mournful prophecy of his death, he said, " He 
that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and 
I will love him and will manifest myself to him. 
Judas said unto him, Lord, how is it that thou 
wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the 
world ? J esus answered, If a man love me, he 
will keep my words, and my Father will love him, 
and we will come unto him and make our abode 
with him." In this sense he is hidden from the 
view of the world ; but to his own people he is 
graciously present; he dwells with them. The 
inward assurance of this favorable presence is the 
source of their peace and conscious security, and 
joy and hope ; he is with them, in their going out, 
and in their coming in, as " a friend that sticketh 
closer than a brother." While they walk with 
him, and hold communion with him, and behold 
these special manifestations of himself in the 
midst of the ungodly world and yet beyond their 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 205 

sight, they themselves being shut up with Him, as 
it were, in a little sphere of light inaccessible to 
others, they are satisfied with his appearance. 

II. "When I awake," said the Psalmist. 
From this it has been inferred that this was com- 
posed and designed as an evening song, and that 
these joyful words were uttered in anticipation of 
a tranquil, happy rising from the rest of night. 
By some it has been understood to signify " when- 
ever I awake." As if he had said, after having 
spoken in the last verse of the prosperity of the 
men of the world, and having described them as 
seeking their portion in this life, " while they 
think, day and night, of their possessions and 
their pleasures, I sleep in the quietude of safety 
beneath the shield of God's protection, and rejoice, 
whenever I awake, in the sight of his reconciled 
countenance, and the consciousness of friendship 
with him." This satisfaction is not confined to 
any occasion, nor to any season. It is the grand 
peculiarity of the Christian's earthly portion, the 
distinguishing characteristic of his daily expe- 



296 KIBKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



rience, the solace of his waking hours. If, indeed, 
through spiritual declension, he be deprived of it 
for a while, as long as that privation lasts it is 
night with him, and though he seem to be awake, 
he is still asleep. When the day again breaks in 
upon him, and startles him from his slumber, then 
he beholds the face of God in righteousness, and 
is satisfied with his appearance. 

Still, our views of God in this life are partial 
at the most, and vague at the best. " The heavens 
declare his glory." in a measure, but his full glory 
is displayed only above the heavens. Here all 
his manifestations are distant, or incomplete, or 
occasional through defects of our vision; here, 
we cannot even behold him as he is revealed, nor 
can we appreciate what we do behold. Though 
our views of him are not delusions ; though he 
does manifest himself unto us as he does not 
unto the world ; though he does come and make 
his abode with us ; though we are richly blessed 
in the enjoyment of his presence and communion, 
yet, after all, we are but partially satisfied with 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 297 



his appearance here. But there is to be another 
awakening, an awakening from the sleep of death, 
an awakening upon the morning of the eternal 
day. Then we shall see God. Then we shall 
see him upon his throne ; then we shall see him 
in the midst of the heavenly host; then we shall 
see him in his own dwelling-place where he dis- 
plays the brightest effulgence of his glory ; then 
we shall see no longer " through a glass, darkly," 
but " face to face ;" then we. shall look with unbe- 
clouded eyes upon his unshaded splendor; then 
we shall be satisfied, completely and forever 
satisfied with his appearance. 

To wake up from a refreshing sleep and look 
out upon a dazzling winter scene, where thousands 
of snow-wreaths sparkling and flashing in the 
morning light, hang in festoons upon the bending 
branches, and in graceful drapery around the 
leafless shrubs, and deck every unsightly thing in 
charming attire, and illude the eye with' the 
mimicry of all that is beautiful ; that is exhil- 
arating indeed. To wake up from a refreshing 



298 KIRKPA THICK MEMORIAL. 



sleep and look out at once upon the sun as he 
rises above the horizon, in gorgeous sheen, and 
scatters his gems upon the hill tops until in their 
profusion they roll down into the grassy vales, 
and pours his treasures of rosy light into the 
bosoms of the sentinel clouds that have lingered 
around the place of his appearing ; that is enough 
to fill the sensitive soul with refined delight. But 
who taking advantage of those emotions of the 
highest grade to which human experience has 
attained, who can, for a moment, imagine the 
rapture that will vibrate through and through the 
sons of immortality, when they awake from the 
sleep of death to behold the Son of God coming 
in the gilded clouds of heaven, in a chariot of 
fire, with the glory of his Father, and with all 
the holy angels in their majestic flight and dazzling 
array ? O, when we awake at last, we shall be 
satisfied indeed with the appearance of God. 

My unconverted friend, you too must awake ! 
for the trumpet shall sound, and the slumber of 
every victim of death shall be broken. At that 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 299 



awakening will you be satisfied with his appear- 
ance ? If you die as you now are, will you exult 
in the sight when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming 
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not 
God and that obey not the Gospel ? Will you 
be satisfied with his appearance when he sits 
upon his great white throne and the heavens and 
the earth are fleeing away from before his face and 
you yourself, though longing to escape even by 
joining in that rush, are spell-bound with dismay 
in the very blaze of his holy wrath? Will not 
the very sight of the offended God upon his 
awful tribunal of justice and judgment, be 
enough to blast the guilty soul into a shrunken 
victim of eternal death ? Would you avoid that 
view, would you stand upon his right hand, would 
you catch his gracious smile of recognition that 
shall send an everlasting thrill of pleasure through 
the immortal spirit ? Then hasten to be reconciled 
unto him, as he is now willing to be reconciled 
unto you through the death of his Son. Hasten 



300 KIRKPATBICK MEMORIAL. 



to seek his favor now ; hasten to secure your final 
acceptance ; abandon your course of rebellion, and 
make your peace with God. Then you may re- 
joice in every manifestation of his presence here, 
and admire and adore in the beatific vision for 
ever. 

III. The Christian is not only to awake to be- 
hold the appearance of God, but to awaken in the 
likeness of the incarnate Son. " It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be ; but we know that when 
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall 
see him as he is." The words of the text may be 
appropriately regarded as pointing to that glorious 
assimilation, and the believer may look forward 
to the resurrection morning and exclaim, " I shall 
be satisfied, when I awake in thy likeness." 

IV. Now in what will this satisfaction consist ? 
1. He will be satisfied with himself. If there 

be a man on earth who is satisfied with himself 
now, he is one to be singled out as the miserable 
object of universal pity. He does not know him- 
self ; he is the victim of a pleasing but most dan- 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 301 

gerous delusion. When we look with an impar- 
tial eye upon ourselves as we are, our minds de- 
praved, our hearts corrupt, our bodies frail, the 
sport of pains, and diseases which are but the 
harbingers of death, how can we be satisfied with 
ourselves? As mortals we are well called "worms 
of the dust — as moral beings we are by nature 
polluted, and at the very best mournfully imper- 
fect. Although it is not needful nor well, for 
any man to cherish a morbid disgust of himself, — 
yet our only appropriate egotism is the language 
of deep humility and self-condemnation. It is a 
thousand pities that a sinful dying man should be 
satisfied with himself. But if we awake in the 
likeness of Christ, we shall have abundant reason 
to be satisfied ; for we shall be pure as he is pure ; 
we shall be perfect as he is perfect ; immortal as 
he is immortal ; all-glorious as he is all-glorious. 
There will be no pride in heaven, but as the ran- 
somed look with adoring wonder upon the Lord 
Jesus, in whose image they have been immortal- 
ized, every soul will be sweetly soothed by a 

26 



302 KIBKPATBICK MEMORIAL. 

holy self-complacency : self-complacency, without . 
pride. 

2. He will be satisfied with his residence. Now 
he is ready to exclaim, 

" I would not live alway ; I ask not to stay, 
Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way." 

True, when God cursed the earth, he did not de- 
face all the beauty of the world ; he left oases in 
the deserts, flowers among the thorns; fruits 
hanging on the very briers ; he sent spring and 
summer to repair the wastes of winter. There 
are many things to admire, many things to love, 
many things to enjoy ; yet we see, on every hand 
plain proofs of the fall, unsightly indications 
of ruin, diligent ministers of suffering and deep 
sources of misery. This world is a far better 
place than sinful man deserves, but it is not a 
suitable home for the happy. Even with our 
partly developed susceptibilities, we are not satis- 
fied with it. But in heaven there will be no 
complaint ; there are no imperfections nor marks 
of ruin nor signs of decay in the architecture or 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 303 



decorations of the holy city. Not only are the 
mansions in our Father's house beautiful beyond 
description, with lavish richness ministering to 
the taste in its celestial refinement, but that house 
is the believer's home ; there all the comforts of 
home abound ; all the conceivable delights of a 
redeemed spirit's home are there in rich profusion, 
and there is no outward occasion of momentary 
disquietude. As the believer walks the golden 
streets of the holy Jerusalem, and looks upon its 
gem-built walls as they glitter in the light of the 
glory of God, and glances from one to another of 
the uncounted beauties and splendor that surround 
him, he will be satisfied with his abode. 

3. He will be satisfied with his company. 
There will be no contention there, no bickerings, 
no jealousy, no censure, no scorn, no contempt, 
no cold indifference ; but love, sacred love in its 
gentleness and strength, will sway all hearts in 
perfect unison of feeling. The fellowship will 
be intimate, unselfish, ennobling. In that ex- 
change of lofty thoughts, and holy sympathies, no 



304 KIRKPATRICK MEMORIAL. 



inquiry of the Christian's mind, nor longing of 
his heart will be left to seek in vain for its full, 
and appropriate pleasure. 

4. He will be satisfied with his employment. 
To worship and praise Jehovah will be his high- 
est delight. There is no weariness in heaven. 
The service is rest ; the duties are rapturous en- 
joyments ; the songs of adoration will be mingled 
with outbursts of sanctified gladness. Yes, he 
will be satisfied, in all respects ; completely and 
for ever satisfied. Ye who have had so many 
wishes denied; so many desires left to devour 
themselves by their own unavailing ardor : so 
many hopes disappointed; imagine if you can, 
what it is to be satisfied ; in all things satisfied. 
Would you know what it is, by blissful and ever- 
lasting experience? Then prepare to awake in 
the likeness of Christ. As you fall asleep so you 
will awake. If you die in your sins, and under 
the frown of God, you will awake to shame and 
everlasting contempt; you will awake never to 
rest again ; you will awake in some distorted 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 305 



form ; the victim of insatiable despair. If you 
fall asleep in Jesus, you will awake in his like- 
ness, and be for ever satisfied. And now, lest you 
should fall asleep unexpectedly, speedily, and 
awake to weep when it is too late, seek at once to 
be united to Christ by a saving faith. . . . 

Let us consider some of the circumstances in 
which the Christian, in view of the ordinary term 
of human life, may innocently say, and with 
earnest emphasis, "I would not live always." 
The afflictions of this world ; all forms of suffer- 
ing and privation and toil are such circumstances. 
Although they afford no sufficient excuse for impa- 
tience and restlessness under the burden of life, 
still, in the light in which we are now viewing 
the subject, they do furnish a strong reason why 
the Christian may use these words. True, " chast- 
ening afterward yieldeth the peaceable fruit of 
righteousness;" true, "Our light affliction which 
is for a moment, worketh for us a far more ex- 
ceeding and eternal weight of glory true, " the 

26 * 



306 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



sufferings of this present time are not worthy to 
be compared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed in us/' but these very consolations all point 
to another and a better world, and thus furnish a 
reason why we should not wish to linger for ever 
in this. Separated from their grand, eternal re- 
sults, and perpetuated here, they would become an 
intolerable burden. Linked, as they are, with 
those results, they direct our loftiest aspirations to 
the world of perfect bliss, and thus in either view, 
on the one hand repelling, and on the other at- 
tracting, they prompt us to say, "I would not live 
always." 

We have reason to desire not only deliverance 
from the ills of this life, but the actual possession 
of far greater good than this world can afford. 
Heaven is before us. Who, then, would desire to 
live always upon earth ? The crown is before us; 
who, then, would desire to bear the cross for ever? 
The palm of victory is before us; who, then, 
would wish the conflict to be everlasting ? The 
prize of our high calling is held up in view ; who, 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 307 



then, would wish to run for ever in the earthly 
race? Live always among the shadows of this 
world, with the unclouded glories of heaven re- 
ceding in the prospect ! Live always with the 
stains and corruption of sin cleaving to us, and 
forego the purity of the sanctified ! Live always 
this dying life, while we catch but the echoes of 
those songs which break forth from the sons of a 
blissful immortality above! Live always this 
lonely life, away from God ; away from our ran- 
somed friends, who have gone to glory; away 
from the Saviour whose presence irradiates the 
city of God ! 

Ah, no, to depart, to depart and be with Christ 
is far better. The contrast is too great to leave 
us indifferent. We would not live always. But 
it must not be forgotten here that the deliberate 
and the honest expression of this preference can 
spring only from a well-grounded and satisfactory 
hope of a happy immortality. It were better to 
continue a tired pilgrim journeying on for ever, 
than to hasten to the door of our Father's house 



308 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL. 



and be met there by a stern rebuke and denial, 
and the decree of everlasting banishment. It 
were better to retain this world, if it were possi- 
ble, with all its sorrows, than to leave it, and then 
fail of heaven. It were better to live always 
even here, than to' die always in hell. With the 
fear of such an alternative ; with the apprehension 
of such an exchange, we cannot sincerely wish 
not to live always. Just in proportion as our 
faith wavers and our fears gather strength and 
prevail we shall be less disposed to use this lan- 
guage. We may properly say, " I would not live 
always," when we thereby express a willingness 
to leave this vale of tears as soon as the sweet 
voice of heaven shall call us to the scenes above; 
or as an expression of rejoicing that this is not 
our everlasting home; but we may not employ 
such words in a spirit of complaint that we are 
obliged to live at all in this stormy world. On 
the contrary, we should be ready to say even in 
the saddest hour as Job said, at a time of calm 
resignation, " All the days of my appointed time 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 309 



will I wait until my change come." O, then let. 
us "give all diligence to make our calling and 
election sure." Let us labor diligently and prayer- 
fully to gain the full assurance of faith, such a 
confidence in the Saviour that we need not fear 
to die. 

We cannot live always if we would. We may 
express a cordial and perfect acquiescence in the 
decree of God, but in no other sense is it really a 
matter of choice, after all. "There is no man 
that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit, 
neither hath he power in the day of death ; and 
there is no discharge in that war." No truth is 
more certain, none more momentous, and yet none 
perhaps is less appreciated. Multitudes live as 
•though they were never to die; and they die, at 
last, with the bitter, burning wish that they had 
never lived. We need something frequently to 
startle us into the practical conviction of our mor- 
tality. It is related of Philip of Macedon, that 
he kept one servant whose business it was to come 
into his room every morning and solemnly re- 



310 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 



peat these words, — " Remember, Philip, thou art 
mortal." That was a mark of wisdom, and it 
doubtless produced an effect ; still it soon became 
a familiar story, and doubtless lost much of its 
power. Eyer and anon the messenger of death 
comes into the midst of us and strikes down a 
relative, or friend, or acquaintance, and as he 
passes along he whispers to each of us, Ci Bemem- 
ber thou too art mortal," but we go to bury the 
dead and return with little more of salutary medi- 
tation than may be prompted by the thought that 
all men are mortal but ourselves. Different and 
less frequent occurrences, bringing similar sug- 
gestions, may be more effective. There is no 
event, perhaps, better adapted to this end, than 
the closing of one year, and the beginning of an- 
other. Our life is limited ; its end is appointed. 
In that respect we are like criminals in prison 
awaiting their execution, only we know not when 
that appointed time will come; our years are like 
their hours. 

Again the great clock of time is striking. 

i 



THE FUTURE SATISFACTION. 311 



Listen to it; this may be the last. The summons 
may be on its way. At most but few such hours 
can be left ; at all events there is now one less to 
come than when we last recorded the number. 
We shall soon hear the footsteps of the messenger. 
We cannot live always ; we may not live an- 
other year. Are we prepared to die ? Ah, it is 
the mournful answer to this question, that forbids 
the ungodly to use the words of the text. They 
dare not sincerely repeat them, unless it be under 
the spell of some desperate indifference. Go stand 
by the bed of the dying, and see the light of life 
flickering and going out, and the feverish flush 
fading into the pallor of death, and think of the 
spirit on its rapid, trackless flight to the judgment 
throne, and say, if you can, " I would not live al- 
ways." Go, stand in the silent graveyard and 
think of the great white throne, and think of the 
books that shall be opened, and think of the 
words that will be spoken, and think of the door 
that will be shut, and think of the blackness of 
darkness for ever, and say, if you can, " I would 



/ 



812 KIRKPA TRICK MEMORIAL, 

not live always !" And yet, if you repent not, 
the time will come, when these words will spring 
up irrepressibly from the depth of your tortured 
soul ; for it shall come to pass that in those days 
men shall seek death and shall not find it ; and 
shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them." 
Did you ever see a poor man dying reluctantly, 
gathering all his failing strength and wrestling 
and struggling with the last enemy, declaring in 
agony, he would not die? feebly defying the ir- 
resistible relentless monster. . . . Oh, it is a fear- 
ful sight, the conflict of life and death !._'■.. 



THE END. 



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